


A Rogue Cherry Blossom

by RiddleWraith



Series: Of a Demon and the Flower who Tamed Him [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: BAMF Haruno Sakura, F/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-17
Updated: 2018-07-14
Packaged: 2019-05-24 07:49:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 31,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14950581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiddleWraith/pseuds/RiddleWraith
Summary: Predictably, things go worse in this timeline than in canon. Obito and Sakura are the only remaining survivors of the Fourth Great Shinobi War due to their respective abilities. They survive Kaguya for a while, barely escaping by the skin of their teeth each time. They grow closer as they learn to work with one another to the best of their abilities. The constant running finally starts to wear on them after a time and Kaguya finally gets a lucky shot in on Obito. Knowing he is dying anyway he uses the power of his Mangekyō and the last of his chakra to send Sakura’s soul and chakra back in time in a desperate bid to change things for the better and prevent their timeline from ever existing. He unfortunately had only enough power to send her back to her pre-genin days but she vows that she will change things no matter what the cost of that is. ObiSaku, mentioned established relationship. No other pairings decided (if there will be any).





	1. The End of a Long Run

**Author's Note:**

> This is a work in progress and also not the cracky time travel work I mentioned in my profile. This is a very recent thing and as of right now I have every intention of finishing it. There will likely be some time skips but I haven't put it in the tags yet because as of yet I haven't written any in. I don't know if the rest of Team 7 will be recurring characters or not aside from mentions yet so I haven't put them in the tags as characters. I didn't write in the bell test because honestly I feel like it's really overdone. Besides that, it went pretty much word for word with canon anyway as Sakura didn't want to give away too many of her abilities. I have only a very, VERY vague outline of what I want to happen in this fic and I don't know how I'm going to accomplish any of it yet as I pretty much fly by the seat of my pants when writing anything (which is why everything I've posted so far has been one shots with no real promise of a sequel to any of them). Unlike most of my other works, there won't be graphic descriptions of sex as that isn't what this is about. Well, that and for a lot of this (if I don't decide to do time skips) Sakura will be quite underage, at least in the physical sense of the word. I'm trying my hand at a romance and if I fail then I guess I'll know that I'm not cut out for it. I hope that you like this but if you don't, feel free to leave my story and go read something else. I'm not keeping you here. Also, yes I know the title has probably already been done or is cliche and I don't honestly care. This is what came to me.

She awoke with a scream, his name the only word on her lips as she gasped in desperate gulps of air. Her parents burst into her room but she ignored them, her mind focused only on their last shared kiss before he used the last of his chakra to save her and died as a result of it. She couldn’t stop the heaving sobs or the fat tears rolling down her cheeks as she clutched her chest, the pain nearly unbearable. They had had so little time together and yet she already loved him _so_ much that losing him was nearly enough to break her.

Fortunately, even if she _had_ lost him he was still alive in this time. She finally, gradually calmed as she realized that she now had the chance to change nearly everything that had gone wrong. She would have to find him of course and she had no idea how she could convince him to stop but she had to try. His last words to her had been a desperate plea.

“Sakura, fix this! I know you can!” he had said. He had activated the jutsu before she had ever had time to answer and she knew when she had arrived back in her bedroom that he had used the last of his chakra to give her this chance. She knew that he was dead in her old timeline without needing to guess or be told. She was determined to do exactly what he had asked of her.

She could never deny him his dying wish even if he wasn’t dead here. If she had her way, he wouldn’t be for a very, very long time. If she had her way, things would be vastly different this time. She would convince him of what had happened in her lost timeline and things would be better.

They would have more time together than the short amount they had been allowed. If she was lucky, he might even fall for her again. Even if he didn’t, she would just _make_ him notice her. She wasn’t about to lose him again now that he was alive and relatively whole minus an eye.

When she finally turned her attention to her parents they both looked extremely worried and at the same time relieved.

“Sakura, what happened? Who is Obito?” her mother asked, speaking up first. She shook her head, using the first lie she thought of on the spot.

“S-sorry.” She stuttered, her voice still quivering from the earlier sobs. “Nightmare.” She explained shortly. Both her mother and father looked unconvinced.

“That seemed a little... much for the reaction to a nightmare.” Her father said skeptically. She decided to add a little truth to the lie.

“Obito’s a friend. I dreamt that he and everyone else died and I was the only one left.” She said, her voice still quivering despite her calmer demeanor. She wasn’t exactly over what had happened to Obito and saying or hearing his name was hard when she knew that _her_ Obito was dead. The man who she had loved and who had loved her in return was gone and she was _not_ okay in the least.

Her parents skepticism eased at what they thought was the truth, convinced by the grief in her voice if nothing else. Her father pulled her into a strong hug while her mother shushed her and stroked her hair lovingly. Instead of calming down yet more she allowed herself to truly fall apart for a moment in her parents arms as she mourned the death of such a newly born love and the man who that love had been with. He had taken her heart so suddenly and unexpectedly that she hadn’t had time to even think about anyone else and she didn’t regret that for even a moment.

She mourned the loss of their future even as she vowed to herself that they would have one together here in this timeline. When she was finally able to pull herself together again it took her far too long to get her parents to finally leave her to get some real rest. By the time everything was said and done she only had a few more hours before she had to get up and go to the academy. She knew she had ended up in her pre-genin days as she didn’t yet have her Konoha headband but she didn’t know how far away from graduation she was.

She took a while to fall asleep so she ultimately went to the academy the next day exhausted and sleep deprived. She didn’t even have the energy or motivation to force a reply to Ino’s snide comment at her appearance. Her low energy and ignoring of Ino’s usual insults caught the attention of most of the class including the boy she had once claimed to love. Back then, she had no idea what love really meant.

She couldn’t find it in herself to care that Sasuke actually acknowledged her existence for the first time. She had to force herself to go through the motions of learning. She only realized what day it was when Iruka announced that they would be reviewing the transformation jutsu because Naruto had once again messed up. When it was her turn she transformed into a flawless copy of Iruka, passing the small test easily.

Instead of celebrating the predictable success like she had last time she merely returned to her place beside her classmates. She didn’t care about any of this and she cared even less if any of her classmates were impressed. It was a simple jutsu and not one that was ever really needed after the academy. No shinobi or kunoichi worth their kunai were ever fooled by a simple henge anyway.

She let the rest of the day pass in a blur, uncaring of what else they learned as she was far beyond this level by now. When the day was over she forced herself to keep going, going out to start training her body back up to her rigid standards as her current physical condition was appalling at best. She knew that she would be in for a hell of a crash when she returned home but she needed to get started as early as possible to get herself back into fighting shape. She still had her now Kage level chakra reserves, her skills and her perfect chakra control but she needed a physical edge as well.

She worked herself hard well into the night and her parents were already asleep when she returned home. As soon as she reached her bedroom she allowed herself to fall onto her bed and go right to sleep, uncaring of how dirty or sweaty she currently was. When she finally got up in the morning she was well rested and hurried herself through a shower and a change of clothes. If her parents were surprised by the large breakfast she ate they said nothing about it.

She needed the calories if she was going to stick to her rigid, self-imposed training regimen. She gave herself just enough time to make and pack a large lunch before she took off to the academy, making it into class just in time for it to start. Today was the day of the graduation test and she of course wasn’t worried in the least. She knew that by the end of the day she and her team would be genin again and the next day they would be placed on a team together.

She still wasn’t sure even now how Naruto had passed the last time so she of course didn’t interfere. Sure enough, Naruto was there the next day with a somewhat beat up looking headband and they were once again assigned to Team 7 alongside Sasuke. She didn’t cheer this time when it was announced, instead sitting stoicly while the other teams filtered out slowly, summoned one by one by the Jounin who would teach them at least until they were chunin. Just like the last time Kakashi was late to meet them.

Unlike last time she waited patiently in the classroom, ignoring her teammates when they decided to leave for a while. She didn’t honestly care to have the same encounters again. Again it took Kakashi hours to even arrive and her teammates got back looking a little worse for wear to once again wait with her. She watched uncaringly as Naruto set up his amateurish prank.

Seriously, he’d played far better pranks both before and after this with far more amusing results even if she hadn’t wanted to admit her amusement the first time around. When Kakashi finally deigned to grace them with his presence he opened the door and allowed himself to be hit by the prank.

“Hmmm, how can I put this.” Kakashi said, holding his chin as if he were actually thinking about it. “My first impression of this group… you’re a bunch of idiots.” He said nonchalantly. She kept a straight face even when she wanted to laugh at Naruto’s crestfallen expression and Sasuke’s offended face. “Meet me on the roof. Hurry up if you’re serious about being ninja.” He said uncaringly, using a shunshin to make his dramatic exit.

She got up with a slight sigh, rolling her eyes at their troll of a future sensei. Her teammates followed her without a word though she could tell even without them speaking that Sasuke was glaring at Naruto for giving Kakashi a bad impression of them. Personally she knew at this point that he’d say something like that to them at first no matter what they would have done. It was his way of messing with them.

When they arrived on the roof she went and took a seat on the stairs in front of the part of the railing Kakashi was leaning against. Naruto sat right by her while Sasuke sat away from both of them as he would usually do. She didn’t really care at this point. All three of her boys had some growing up to do and while she would be polite, she wasn’t going to try getting close to them at this point.

Naruto needed to learn that asking someone out over and over was not the way to gain their affection. Sasuke needed to learn that if you pushed people away, no one was going to want to stick around to help you with your goals even if you end up needing help. Kakashi needed to learn that while it was okay to protect yourself from the world, he also needed to learn to open up a bit with his team and take _all_ of his students and their training seriously. Last time around she had taken his lack of interest in her in stride.

Last time around she had allowed him to ignore her to the point that it likely would have been ruled criminally negligent if she had reported him. She had assumed it was because he saw no real potential in her and she had originally assumed he was right about that. Her self-esteem hadn’t been very high the first time around no matter how she acted. She had been a damsel waiting around to be rescued by a person who was never going to be there to do so.

She had been stupid and weak the first time around and even now she blamed that for Kakashi having no interest in actually training her. She knew it wasn’t entirely her fault though. Kakashi could have whipped her into shape if he had any motivation to do so just like Tsunade had but at that point he’d just had no interest in actually helping her get stronger. He had interest in only the two boys of the group and had left her to her own devices.

Given, she had never shown an interest in actually getting stronger of her own accord the first time around either. Well, she hadn’t until Sasuke had left the village anyway. Her first year of being a genin had honestly been a complete joke. She had expected Sasuke to save her every time she got in trouble because she hadn’t bothered to get stronger on her own or train.

What made it worse was that it was usually Naruto who did the actual saving. Sasuke didn’t care enough about either of them to help keep them alive. Well, not at first anyway. The bridge mission had changed that a bit but even after that he had treated them more as burdens than teammates.

She wasn’t actually pulling her own weight at that time so for her it was understandable even if was still uncalled for. Naruto however had gotten increasingly stronger and Sasuke had _still_ treated him like that. She was knocked out of her thoughts as Kakashi called on her to introduce herself. Unlike last time it seemed that she was the last to do this.

She had apparently missed her teammates’ introductions and she assumed that they were likely exactly how they were last time. She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Despite the fact that she knew it didn’t really matter what she said here, she was still a little nervous. She had a feeling that this was the point Kakashi had written her off.

“My name is Haruno Sakura. My interests are medical ninjutsu and training. My hobbies are the same as my interests. I don’t like people who lie to themselves rather than facing the truth and people who try to justify bad things they’ve done by using their past traumas as an excuse.” Here she paused to glance at Sasuke before continuing.

It seemed that Kakashi was the only one quick enough to catch it as her teammates both remained oblivious. She continued before the pause became too long.

“My dream is… really not that important.” She shrugged. She couldn’t exactly tell them that her dream was to save the man she loved from himself. It wasn’t like any of them really cared about her dreams at this point anyway. Sasuke only cared about himself and his goal and even in the future when they had met up again to fight together that hadn’t changed.

Kakashi currently only cared about his past with getting people he got close to killed and making the three of them not his problem so he didn’t have to deal with yet more of the same. Naruto would only care about her dream in the context of making her see how much he liked her. He didn’t really see her as a person right now. All she was to him was a pretty girl he wanted to date even if he didn’t really know what all that entailed.

It was honestly fine though. She had gotten used to being disregarded and ignored by her boys. She had gotten over that years ago when Tsunade had taught her that she was her own person and she didn’t just consist of what others thought of her. She was taught to be strong on her own merit rather than relying on a team that wouldn’t bother to really be there for her when she needed someone to lean on.

Hell, she hadn’t known Obito that long and yet still _he_ had become that person for her. She shut that thought down before she could dwell on it and swore once again to find him as soon as possible. She already had a plan in place that would allow her to do so with all the freedom that entailed. She would likely implement it if she could get enough time to herself during the bridge mission or on the night Sasuke would leave the village to go to Orochimaru.

It all depended on how fast she could get her body into a useable shape. While she still had all of her skills and chakra, she didn’t have the height, weight or physical strength she had possessed before she had traveled back in time. She had a few months of just D ranks at least before Naruto finally snapped and asked for a better mission, upon which they would be given the escort mission that had changed their team forever. It was just too bad that while it had had an impact on all of them, it hadn’t really motivated her to get stronger.

Even the Chunin exams and what had happened in the forest of death with Orochimaru hadn’t done that. She didn’t honestly know why but it wasn’t until the boy she had once claimed to love had left the village that she had really woken up and seen how much of a burden she was to her team. It was only after she had failed to keep Sasuke from leaving that she realized how weak she truly was at that point. She had even tried to rely on Naruto to bring him back to her.

It was only after both of her boys were gone and she no longer had the illusion of someone to lean on that she had realized that no one was going to help her. Team 7 was broken and Kakashi didn’t care about her enough to help her get stronger. She had felt pathetic begging for Tsunade to teach her but if anyone could teach her to be strong, Tsunade could. She had thought Tsunade was going to deny her until she admitted to how much she hated not being able to catch up to her boys.

She supposed that Tsunade must have felt that at one point too because she had then agreed to train her. It may not have been her proudest moment but it had led to something wonderful so it was a cherished memory all the same. She had both strength and confidence now, something she had lacked the first time around. She could and _would_ do this.

It didn’t matter if her teammates left her behind this time. She was used to that. She could ignore that in favor of her goal. The ones she cared about would be fine as long as she wasn’t there to accidentally change things. The only one she needed to change things for at this point was _him_ and her plan to do so was smart in its simplicity.

She was startled out of her thoughts once more by a hum from her sensei. Looking around, she realized she was the only one besides him left on the rooftop. The boys must have already left.

“You seem to get lost in thought a lot, pinky. It happened two times in the short span of time we’ve spent together. Is your team really that boring to you?” he asked curiously. She knew that he was trying to get something out of her answer but she didn’t know what it was.

“I don’t know what you’re waiting to hear sensei but you’ll likely be waiting for a while. I don’t like playing games and so far this has all seemed a game you are playing with us. Let me know if you decide to get serious.” She said, suddenly angry with him. She remembered how he had been the first time around.

Even after his grand speech of not leaving comrades behind he hadn’t seriously done anything to help them develop a sense of teamwork or to help them get stronger. He had trained Sasuke and Naruto on the side and had generally left her out of it, as if she weren’t worthy of being taught. She was stopped from leaving by a hand on her shoulder. Said hand held her in a strong grip and turned her back around to face him.

“It seems to me that you are the one who isn’t taking this seriously. Do you intend to wait around for someone to save you when you’re in trouble? If so then I’ve got news for you, pinky. You are a shinobi now and you have to be able to protect yourself because no one else is going to do it for you.

“If you don’t take this lifestyle seriously and actually put effort into training yourself then you _will_ die.” Kakashi told her seriously. It seems that he had heard about how she used to be back when she was a useless fan girl and he expected her to be like that even now. She would be insulted if it weren’t for the fact that she would still be like that if she didn’t have her memories from the future. It was understandable that he would assume her to still be that way.

“Oh, you don’t have to worry, sensei. I don’t intend to just let myself die. Despite what you may have heard about me, I _am_ taking this seriously. I have goals and I won’t reach them by being a deadweight on the team.” She said calmly, using the barest bit of chakra to wrench her shoulder out of his grip.

She turned and left before he could say anything more to her. She may not be insulted by the insinuation but she _was_ mad at who had leveled it at her. How _dare_ he tell her that when he hadn’t bothered with her the first time around! At least this time he had given her some warning about what might happen to her if she continued to be useless.

Last time he had never cared enough. Last time she was _clearly_ a civilian in over her head and he hadn’t cared enough to inform her that death wasn’t just a possibility to a shinobi but a reality. He hadn’t _cared_ that she may die and she doubted he would have cared if she had. He would have just counted it as more blood on his hands with that same infuriating self-blaming behavior without having tried to do anything to prevent it.

How _dare_ he care _now_ when she was determined _not_ to get close to any of them! How _dare_ he bother _now_ when she was so clearly distant and apathetic to all of them at best. Was that how she should have been the first time if she wanted him to care at all? Should she have been apathetic to what was happening around her? Should she have just let life pass her by?

She clenched her fists so tightly that her nails dug into her palms and made crescent shaped marks on them. She wanted to punch something. She _wanted_ to punch Kakashi. She wanted to be doing anything other than dealing with his infuriating behavior all over again.

Now she knew why he and Obito hadn’t gotten along. Even if he was different now, he was still just as infuriating as the boy Obito had told her stories about when they had time to do such things. She didn’t know if she had expected things to be different or the same when she had arrived back in this time period but both were starting to get to her. Reliving the same events was already tedious but when unexpected things happened it was also really jarring.

Sighing, she tried to let go of her irrational anger. She didn’t know _why_ Kakashi had felt it necessary to warn her this time when he hadn’t bothered last time and she wasn’t going to ask him. There was no point in getting angry over things she couldn’t change. There was no point in being hurt when she already _knew_ her team didn’t care about her either way.

She needed to distance herself from emotion as she had finally learned to do on the run with Obito. Being emotional and irrational would not help her fix things that went wrong. She took a deep breath inward before she exhaled it slowly and allowed herself to sink into numbness and apathy once more. Once, she had needed such a state so that she wouldn’t break down and grieve the fallen when they didn’t have time for her to do so.

Now she needed it because she couldn’t afford to break down before she had fixed everything that needed to be fixed. When she did have time, she hoped that by that point Obito would be by her side to put her back together again once she fell apart. They had been everything to one another near the end and it wasn’t only because they were the only human beings left in existence at that point. He had understood her far more easily than anyone else she had known could have ever claimed to.

She could easily have been Uchiha Sakura at that point and for all intents and purposes she was. He just wasn’t the Uchiha she had envisioned herself ending up with when she was still in the academy or even after that. He may not have been Sasuke but in the end she was all the more thankful for that. He was devoted to her and only her at that point.

He had never once insulted her or made her feel as low as Sasuke would. He was kind, caring and honestly really, really sweet. Even in a time where they needed to hide behind a wall of emotional numbness most of the time he had shown his love for her. Everything he did at that point was for her and she couldn’t help but return both the favor and the love.

She found herself tearing up as she remembered the small, stolen moments of tenderness between them in between bouts of running from Kaguya and fighting for their lives. She was startled to realize she had made it all the way home on muscle memory alone. She really needed to stop becoming lost in thought. Even if the thoughts of Obito had calmed her down, being so lost in thought was dangerous.

Konoha may be her home village but there were enemies about even here. Black and white Zetsu could be anywhere and anyone they wanted and since she wasn’t a sensor, she wouldn’t be able to tell until it was too late. Logically she knew that they didn’t currently have any reason to have any interest in her besides the fact that she had just become teammates with the last “loyal” Uchiha and the nine-tailed fox Jinchuuriki but she couldn’t help the years of instinct backing up her paranoia. They were still dangerous, interest in her or not.

She reluctantly allowed herself to dismiss the thought as she hurried up to take a shower. She purposefully let her mind blank as she washed herself and went through the rest of her nightly routine once she was dried and dressed. She didn’t bother changing the sheets she had dirtied the night before as she had become used to sleeping in much worse conditions during the few years she was on the run with Obito. Her sleep was restless, her dreams full of images of them together in their stolen moments of bliss.


	2. The Start of a Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team 7 gets the mission to Wave and Sakura prepares to leave the Leaf behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've taken liberties with canon chakra sensing because I believe that while sensor nin would be the best at it, there's no reason why a non sensor shouldn't be able to feel chakra to an extent, especially if they can feel obviously strong chakra like the bijuus' chakra. If you spot any mistakes, let me know. I usually write and move on the next part of the story so I seldom do much more than skim over previous chapters.

She spent the next day far more productively than she had the day before. They did a few D ranks and trained together while Kakashi watched from the sidelines before he dismissed them for the day. Rather than go home, she started her intense strength training regimen once again. She could afford to train herself more harshly than a normal Genin could because she was good at medical ninjutsu and she could heal herself far more quickly while she still got the benefits of the workout.

Her days began to blur together in this routine and she began to see results within just the first few days. Before she knew it she was at three quarters of the physical strength she had obtained by the time the Fourth Great Shinobi War had begun and she was immensely proud of herself for that. It was an immense improvement from her formerly weak state. Unfortunately, the Tora mission was sprung on her before she could mentally prepare for it.

It wasn’t that the Tora mission in itself was hard or emotionally taxing because it wasn’t. She just knew that this was also the day that Naruto finally asked for a C ranked mission. She didn’t know if she was ready to implement her plan yet. She wasn’t at her desired strength just yet as it was hard to pack that much strength into such a significantly smaller body than the one she had been used to since she had turned 15.

She wanted to be at least as physically strong as she had been during the start of the fourth war. Her speed hadn’t been quite as difficult to gain back due to her smaller frame. She was back to full speed at least by now if not a bit faster. She was also used to fighting in this smaller body again as she knew she wouldn’t hit her growth spurt until she hit 14 which was about a year and a half away.

She knew she wouldn’t have to wait that long to get to her desired strength as long as she kept to her training regimen. She was increasing it every week as her endurance went up. Her chakra pool had also grown significantly with her physical growth. The chakra exercises she was doing simultaneously with her strength training helped her to keep up her control.

She had also noticed an increase in both the amounts of spiritual and physical chakra she had every time she did said exercises. This meant that she had an ever growing pool of chakra so long as she kept it up. She had also finally found the time to redo her yin seal although she had put it in a far less noticeable place this time. She had done that as soon as she had been able and had placed the seal on her left breast above her heart.

In addition to the first seal, she realized that it would be useful to have another as a backup even if it would take a while to charge them both up fully. Once that was decided, she put it opposite her other seal on her right breast. She could still put chakra into both and use chakra from them just as easily but they were now in a place that wasn’t in plain sight. They wouldn’t be visible until they were fully charged but she didn’t anticipate it taking her nearly as long as it had before even with two of them.

This was especially true given her surplus of chakra. She also didn’t plan on being trained by Tsunade this time around. Her plan hinged on the fact that the village wouldn’t miss her if she went missing. She was broken out of her musings by their arrival in the Hokage’s office. They had only just finished the Tora mission so now was the time she was anticipating.

She couldn’t allow herself to become lost in thought outside the village. She had to prepare herself in case the opportunity to fulfill her plan came on this outing. Once Tora had been returned to its overbearing owner, Naruto made his displeasure at continuing to do D ranks known. Just like last time around, they were given the C ranked mission to escort Tazuna back to Wave.

She was on edge not only because of the possibility of putting her plan into action early but also because this mission had been mis-ranked from the start and she suspected that the Hokage had at least suspected as much. Tazuna was about as subtle as her hair color. Thinking of her hair color, she reminded herself to pack plenty of hair dye into the storage seal array that was already back in its usual place on her skin. When they were dismissed to start packing for the mission tomorrow the first thing she did was go out and buy plenty of hair dye and seal it away on the storage seal array on her hip.

Everything else she needed for her plan was already sealed away in the same seal. It was more comprehensive than a normal storage seal seeing as Naruto had designed it himself. Instead of being just one seal, it was multiple seals carefully layered together to work both individually and in sync, hence referring to it as a sealing array and not just a seal. Before he had died he had taught it to all of the remaining living humans on their side.

She could access one of the many seals within the layer or she could access just the one she needed to hurriedly withdraw what she needed at that time. She smiled at the reminder of her old teammate before grabbing the pack she had brought the first time around and packing only a little more than she had packed the first time. She brought more food this time around and less of the frivolous things her former self had brought. She left the makeup her old self would have had a fit leaving without.

The only reason she packed her brush was because her hair was still long and thus far more likely to get painfully tangled in something if she didn’t brush it out. She would have to cut it soon but she was likely going to wait until her plan was successful before doing so whether that was once they were in Wave or shortly after the Chunin exams. She wouldn’t allow her hair to become a liability to her again. Once she was done packing, she allowed herself to spend the rest of the night with her parents.

If all went according to plan, she wouldn’t be seeing them again for a long time if ever. When morning came she went about her normal morning routine like nothing was amiss. When she was ready, she started for the gates with her pack strapped over her shoulders. She arrived only to find that she was the first one there so she settled in for a long wait.

As usual her boys showed up only a few minutes after her along with Tazuna but Kakashi didn’t show up for nearly an hour. Tazuna of course complained the whole time, impugning Kakashi and all Konoha shinobi’s honor and sense of duty the whole time. Naruto had had to be subdued some time ago to keep from attacking the client and Sasuke only got more moody. Sakura had been offended the first time around but she didn’t really care this time.

If all went according to her plan and she put it into action on this trip then she wouldn’t have much to say when it came to honor or duty. When Kakashi finally showed up they took off at once, finally leaving the village for the first time as a team. Well, it was Sakura’s second time but no one else knew that. The trip went just as it had last time and Sakura let it play out, knowing that if enough changed Kakashi might just decide that the mission wasn’t worth it and take them all back to Konoha.

In the end, after Naruto’s dramatic declaration to never give up they decided to continue. When it came to Zabuza’s attack she found it harder to let play out but forced herself to play the role she had last time. Despite trying not to form attachments to the three idiots she had started to like them anyway. She knew they weren’t her boys as she remembered them and that they didn’t really care about her but she couldn’t help how she felt.

She couldn’t help that they looked just like the three males she had grown fond of. When everything was over and Kakashi had once more passed out from chakra exhaustion they all traveled the rest of the way to Tazuna’s house in a subdued manner. All of them except for Sakura and Naruto were worn out from the events that had transpired. Like the last time around, Naruto ended up carrying Kakashi all the way there.

Once there they laid out Kakashi’s sleeping bag and laid him in it before laying out their own. The boys went to sleep almost instantly as did the civilians but Sakura couldn’t sleep. Her paranoia kept her from being able to sleep while they didn’t have a proper watch. She knew that last time around Kakashi had taken around a week to recover from his chakra exhaustion.

Even if he had awoken before that he had needed all the sleep he could get to fully recover. She knew logically that she couldn’t stay up for a full week. It would look lazy of her to be sleeping all day while the boys trained. Despite that knowledge, she couldn’t help what her paranoia made her do. She had been on the run for years and those instincts didn’t just fade away.

She decided that she would spend the night on the lookout while at the same time contributing more of the necessary materials for her plan to work. Once she was on the roof so she could keep an eye out she released a sealed container from one of the layers of her storage array. She gripped it carefully between her thighs before pulling out a kunai. She held the kunai carefully in her mouth while she opened the sealed container.

Once it was open she pressed a bit of chakra into the side of it, the chakra revealing an intricate network of seals across the bottle. With the network of seals now shimmering lightly with her chakra she stowed away the top to the bottle before grabbing the kunai once more. She carefully made a cut across her palm and cupped it, using her hand as a funnel so the blood trickled into the mouth of the bottle. With her hand positioned she carefully used her medical chakra to make her wound produce more blood to fill the container faster.

It was a bastardization of a blood replenishment jutsu but it worked well for the purpose she had in mind. Of course, she also had to keep her innately healing chakra from healing the cut on her hand while she kept up the blood replenishment jutsu as well. She had been contributing to the container when she could without having to resort to the jutsu to do so but her time was running short if she had an opportunity to put her plan into motion here. She didn’t like doing this but there wasn’t much choice now.

If she wanted enough blood then she had to bleed herself for the next few days with this technique. It had taken her a while to get even half the blood she needed without making herself feel sick from it or affecting her training so she had quite a bit to go. She needed her full body’s worth of blood and needless to say she couldn’t put her plan into motion if she bled out and died to do it. She hated using this technique because it drained chakra quickly.

Being drained of both blood and chakra at once was one of the worst feelings that a shinobi could have aside from actual physical injuries. It was like the world’s worst hangover. Dizziness, a pounding headache and intense nausea that medical jutsu couldn’t cure were usually the results of such. Sakura would have to be careful to find the right balance for the next few days as she needed to stay alert while Kakashi was not.

She wasn’t just going to assume that everything was going to play out just as it had before. For all she knew Haku had hit Zabuza in a different place with the senbon while pretending to be a hunter nin and he would be back up in less than a week. She would need to be at full strength to protect her team and Tazuna until Kakashi could recover. That being said, she was still as vigilant as ever while keeping watch.

She didn’t let what she was doing affect her enough to impair her. In the end she had finally allowed the cut on her hand to heal and had sealed the bottle up again before sealing it away in her storage array. She did this over the next few nights, sleeping when she had time but ultimately staying up until Kakashi awoke a few days later. She was exhausted by then but only allowed herself to sleep once the boys had already gone to bed.

She knew that Kakashi could tell she was exhausted but the confrontation she was expecting didn’t come until the boys had both gone back to Tazuna’s for the night. Once they had, Kakashi had barred her way. While she could easily outpace him as he was, she knew that an actual Genin would still be outmatched and she wasn’t ready for any of her secrets to be revealed yet. As such she just sighed and crossed her arms, waiting for him to speak.

“Why are you so exhausted? What have you been doing that’s left you sleeping during the day?” he asked. Great, the boys had snitched on her. Maybe not intentionally but they had.

“I’ve been keeping watch at night while you’ve been unconscious.” She said calmly. It wasn’t like she had been doing something wrong but they both knew that they were technically in safe territory at the moment and that he would feel that a watch wasn’t necessary.

“Why? I told you all about the possibility of Zabuza being alive once I’d woken up but before that you shouldn’t have had reason to suspect anyone in the area could or would injure any of us.” He pointed out. Her jaw clenched at his carelessness and she had to remind herself that Kaguya wasn’t out and about yet and that both Zetsu were in hiding. This Kakashi hadn’t yet experienced life on the run or the Fourth Great Shinobi War.

“That doesn’t mean we have to be careless. With you out of commission we had to have someone keep watch. It was best that the boys both got their rest and trained when they were able. They are both stronger than myself and thus they would have a better chance of making a difference in the fight.” She pointed out logically. Kakashi still narrowed his eyes at her in suspicion.

“Surprisingly smart for someone who only cared about how you thought Sasuke wanted you to look while in the academy. Tell me, how does a screeching fan girl turn into a logical shinobi overnight?” he asked, his eyes as cold as ice at this point and his voice nearly matching them. She snarled at him angrily.

“I had a wakeup call even before you so _nicely_ pointed out that I could end up dead if I didn’t take my training seriously, sensei. Your little comment was merely icing on the cake at that point. I can’t achieve my goals if I’m dead now can I?” she asked snidely, her arms clenched in her fists so tightly at this point that she felt her bones creak from the strain. She wanted more than ever to punch this man in his masked face.

Sure, her Kakashi hadn’t cared about her in the least and had essentially seen her as a nonentity on the team but this one seemed downright hostile at times. She didn’t know what she had done to get under his skin but she wasn’t going to take his interrogation or his snide comments lying down. She could give just as good as she got. She didn’t care _what_ his problem with her was.

“What goals are those?” he asked, not backing down. She felt like she was in T&I at this point and she didn’t appreciate being made to feel like that by someone who was _supposed_ to be an ally.

“I don’t believe that my goals are any of your business, sensei. I would, however, like to ask a question of my own. Why is it that you’re treating me like an enemy when I’m clearly a Genin in your own cell? Why the hostility?” she asked, arching a pink eyebrow in question. His eyes turned colder at the question.

“Let me ask you a few questions in return before I answer yours. Why do you keep yourself distant from your teammates? Why hide your emotions behind a mask and pretend to be cold and apathetic?” he asked in return. She snorted lightly and her other eyebrow raised a bit in surprise.

“Pretend, sensei? This is the _reality_ of what I am. That screeching fan girl was merely a mask I put on at that point. Children tend to become uncomfortable if someone their age doesn’t act like one of them.” She said with a shrug. She could see his expression slowly turning into a frown but she didn’t care.

“And your teammates?” he asked. She stared deadpan at him for a moment before answering.

“Why would I bother being friendly with them? They are my teammates, not my friends. I am supposed to be useful to them and nothing more and if I’m lucky then they will be useful to me as well.” She said. She knew that she was lying to a point as they reminded her of her boys but another part of her was being truthful too.

Right now this team was just a means to an end. Nothing else really mattered to her right now aside from finding a way to save Obito. Life in the village and on this team would go on as it had before with or without her so she felt it best if she left as little emotional impact on them as possible. If all went to plan, her death would be noted and they would move on with a new teammate soon enough.

“So, you see your teammates as nothing more than a means to an end then?” Kakashi asked her, his voice condemning. She nodded, uncaring of his condemnation.

“There is little point in them being anything else. Your little speech when we passed your test was very heartfelt but it would only affect someone who had a heart in the first place, sensei. I don’t care about comrades and I don’t care about the will of fire. Save all that for someone who does.” She said, her face uncaring and her voice as cold as his had become.

Kakashi’s expression quickly turned into a snarl visible even with his mask that was a true sight to behold and if she had been an actual Genin she might have been scared by it. The deep, rumbling growl now crawling up his throat was impressive as well.

“I knew someone who was once like you are now. Would you like to know what happened to him?” he asked, his voice dark and his eyes an icy, dark void. She shrugged, not caring in the least if he told her or not. He took this as assent and continued to talk.

“He slowly lost everything he _did_ care about until there was nothing left for him to lose anymore. He realized far too late that he really _had_ cared about his teammates but by then it was too late to tell anything but a stone the truth he should have let go of far before that was the case. If you stay as you are you’ll soon find that the same will happen to you. You’ll lose everything that you actually _do_ care about until there is nothing left for you to lose.” He said darkly.

She could tell that he wanted to impress this lesson upon her but he was preaching to the choir here. She had _already_ lost everything. It was the very _reason_ she was as cold as she was now. These were _not_ her boys, much as they looked like them.

She knew logically that this Obito wouldn’t really be _her_ Obito either but that didn’t matter to her. He was her one real goal, her one constant. He was the one thought that kept her going through this farce of a life again. No matter _what_ Kakashi said, she would not allow him to die again.

She would die before she allowed that to happen. She glared at Kakashi, annoyed that he was comparing her to himself.

“You fail to realize one thing. Unlike _him_ , I won’t let myself fail to protect what is mine. I will do whatever it takes to achieve my goal, even if I am despised for it.” She said with finality, moving to go around him. He stopped her with a hand though his grip wasn’t as hard as it had been on the academy roof.

“Your goal is to protect something and yet you would throw your team away for such a thing. You… are a very contradictory person, Haruno Sakura.” He said before releasing her from his grip. She said nothing in return, moving to head back to the house to get some actual sleep now that Kakashi was awake even if not fully recovered.

The village and her team would be _fine_ without her and she knew that. Obito however would descend further and further into madness the longer he stayed on the path he was currently on. Even if this version of Obito never loved her, she would still save him. She would _not_ fail at that even if she failed at fixing anything else.

Her sleep was once again restless as she dreamt about her time with Obito. It was more restful than getting no sleep but she was still tired the next day. While most of her dreams about him were a pleasant reminder, some of them were not so pleasant. Their run from Kaguya had been fraught with close shaves and her mind liked to use that against her when she slept.

Sometimes she was allowed nice dreams of the times of brief rest they had gotten to enjoy with one another. Other times her mind twisted real memories of events into various ways that Obito could have died before he had ever had the chance to send her back in time. Those were the worst because the Obito of her dreams always looked at her accusingly, blaming her for not saving him. She always woke up crying from those ones.

She had hoped not to have one of those while out on this mission with her team but she had been as lucky in that as her former teacher usually was in gambling. She had awoken the whole house by screaming them all, including herself, awake. The only luck she’d had in that was that she hadn’t screamed his name this time. She didn’t want to have to explain to Kakashi how she knew that name and why she was screaming it in her sleep.

Still, her team was worried (with the exception of Sasuke who clearly didn’t care) about why she woke up screaming. She of course couldn’t very well explain herself truthfully so she made up a bland lie about nightmares that she was sure none of them really believed even if it was actually really close to the truth. She just never admitted to what the nightmares were actually about. There wasn’t a single person aside from Obito in this timeline that she wanted to confide in.

As much as he may have made an effort later, the Kakashi of her now current time didn’t give a fuck about her and indeed actually somewhat hated her now. She understood why but that didn’t make it hurt any less despite how she tried to block out the pain of it. She got that her presented persona reminded him of himself at her supposed age but at the same time she almost wished he would see past that despite how that might affect her plans. Sadly, Kakashi was as uncaring of her if not more so than he had been in her last go around at this point in time.

As she continued to do her routine training on her own after Kakashi released her from the tree walking exercise, she told herself that this was better for her plans. No matter what she felt about it, it was better if no one on the team really cared if she went missing or apparently died. She would just be another civilian child that turned out not to be fit for shinobi life and within a few short weeks she would be forgotten by all who she hadn’t made an impact on. It wouldn’t hurt this Kakashi because at this point he didn’t have any real emotional attachment to her anyway.

Naruto may be hurt by it but he would get over it. The depth of feelings children his age felt were limited and he would eventually forget about her and move on. Really, it was the ideal solution. If the Leaf thought her dead, they wouldn’t pay any serious attention to any descriptions vaguely matching hers that might show up in the bingo book and they certainly wouldn’t go hunting down the barest traces she would leave behind of herself to find what they thought was a long dead kunoichi of civilian descent.

As it drew nearer and nearer to the time when she would put her plan into action, she grew increasingly nervous. She was of course good enough at hiding how she felt by now not to show it but that didn’t decrease her nerves a bit. She had planned on ‘falling asleep’ outside while she was ‘training’ followed by of course setting her plan in motion. Blood clones were a dangerous but useful jutsu that allowed you to use even more chakra than a shadow clone plus your body’s worth of blood in addition to it to make a body double of yourself that could bleed, take a death blow and die to make it seem as though you had really died should that be your intention.

They had used it against Kaguya a few times and it was always very draining, using nearly all the chakra one had so that the clone had at least nearly your chakra reserves. Anything missing would be dismissed as you having used jutsu, thus using up some of your chakra. It was also very tiring to constantly have to drain oneself of blood to collect it for the clone but it was useful for such situations. When the day finally came for the start of her plan she went to train by herself as was normal now.

Instead of returning in the evening to Tazuna’s house she stayed out all night. She knew that if she hadn’t returned by evening tomorrow that Kakashi would come looking for her but she would be gone by then and her decoy would be there in her place. She earnestly trained while waiting but it wasn’t nearly as much as she had in the days preceding this one. She had only just gotten the amount of blood she needed to make the clone and it had been a painful and tiring process.

Added to that was the fact that she still needed to actually use the jutsu and it would take a lot of chakra to do. Because of the way the jutsu worked you had to have quite a bit of chakra to perform it but also to fill the decoy to near maximum capacity so that your opponent would think it was the genuine article. Well, that was usually the case. It was going to be different here because she wouldn’t have to worry about it being assumed to be her or not.

There was no point in trying to read the amount of chakra in a corpse since the chakra started to quickly dissipate at the point of death, usually flowing out with the blood one spilled. She would have to leave her clothes and headband on the clone because they were made nude unlike shadow clones. Fortunately that wouldn’t be a problem for her. She had brought plenty of extra clothing in the supplies she had sealed into one of the storage seals in the array.

Aside from that, she didn’t want to be identified as being from Konoha once her plan was complete and she was free to roam. She obviously didn’t plan on staying in Fire to be identified by shinobi from Konoha. She also didn’t plan to do anything big enough or noteworthy enough to be put into bingo books anytime soon. If she were forced to do something flashy she was going to attempt to ensure that the witnesses didn’t escape whether they were shinobi or not.

Some would call her cold for such things but to her it didn’t matter. The only thing she’d had time to think about when running from Kaguya was survival, both for herself and her beloved. Such a situation didn’t lend itself to a sense of empathy when herself and her beloved were the only humans left in existence at that point anyway, so far as she could tell. Empathy could be saved for a time when she could afford to feel it.

With an expression carved from stone she sacrificed the necessary chakra and the blood she’d collected, quickly forming the blood clone. Hopefully if Kakashi sensed it he would just chalk it up to her using some technique. In any event she hurriedly undressed and waited for the clone to put on her clothing and headband. She couldn’t afford for Kakashi to come upon her while she was still in the middle of her plan.

Once the clone was dressed she took a single kunai from the pouch now on her blood clone’s leg, slid behind the unresisting clone and easily slit its throat. She watched with a somewhat morbid fascination as her mirror image choked on its own blood, the sounds likely nearly identical to the ones she would make were this to actually happen to her. Fascinated as she was, it didn’t stop her from ruthlessly suppressing even the barest hint of her chakra so it seemed as if her clone was the only one around. She decided not to worry about her scent trail.

Seeing her body double obviously dead, Kakashi would likely assume that her blood was on her murderer and thus still trailing around her scent. It was even true in a way as the arterial spray of the clone’s throat had covered her arm in blood. Luckily, the scent trail would end at the ocean and unless he followed near to her direct path through Fire he wouldn’t pick up on it. If he did she would be in trouble if he followed her.

Although she _was_ faster than Kakashi as of now she could not match the sheer amount of endurance the man had in her current state. No matter the intensity of her physical training, it could not be understated how truly pathetic her physical state had been before she had started training her body again. Unlike strength and speed, endurance took quite a while to build and she had never had an impressive amount of stamina even at her best compared to the stamina beasts that composed the rest of her team. In her current state she could only outrun Kakashi for so long if he found and decided to pursue the scent trail.

That being the case, she hurried away from the scene of what others would come to know as the grisly murder of Haruno Sakura. Her only thought as she fled was of Obito and where he could be. She would need to keep her ear to the ground if she wanted any hints as to his whereabouts. As far as she knew he hadn’t started moving about openly until he decided to don his Tobi persona when she was around 16, only a little while after Naruto had come back from his training trip with Jiraiya.

She gave no thought to the team she was leaving behind in Wave. The three would be fine without her. She had never had a hand in Sasuke or Naruto’s growing strength so that would remain a constant. Kakashi disliked her in this timeline even more than in her last in which he merely regarded her as unimportant so it was unlikely to affect him.

It wasn’t like she would have cared if it had anyway. Kakashi had never been her teacher. She hadn’t had a teacher until Tsunade had come along. She had given up on getting him to notice her or even praise her.

Shrugging herself out of her thoughts she kept herself at a constant speed, keeping her senses as open as she could with her chakra completely suppressed so she wouldn’t be taken by surprise or sensed by anyone who would be a challenge to her. She may not be a sensor nin but any shinobi could sense chakra to a point and any shinobi had enough chakra to sense. Civilians were another story of course. She needed to go unnoticed for a while so she could get back to the mainland and through the southern tip of Fire closest to River.

She planned to head to River through Fire and stay there for a while. While it was likely that she could handle any opposition, she _was_ on a flight away from an S-Class tracker even if his skill set was a little rusty at the current time. She couldn’t afford to leave an obvious trail of bodies and yet more scents to track. She would have to use chakra to get across the ocean to Fire no matter what she did so she just hoped she was far enough away from Kakashi that he couldn’t sense her.

He wasn’t a sensor nin either but he too had practiced enough that while he was not as good as a true sensor nin, he could still sense chakra in a decently wide area around himself. She estimated his range to be at least a hundred meters. That being the case, she didn’t even dare use enough chakra to unseal her spare clothes, instead running in the nude. She didn’t really care if she had clothes on or not honestly.

It wasn’t like she had a real sense of modesty anymore. It was hard to when your clothes kept being destroyed by a near constant losing battle against a goddess and your only real concern was surviving. Given, it happened slowly over quite a few hit-and-run battles but eventually her clothing had been reduced to scraps that hadn’t even preserved what modesty she still had at that point. She still treasured the memory of Obito’s cherry red face when they’d finally found a temporary hideaway from Kaguya and she’d ripped the scraps of clothes off in frustration.

She had found it endearing just how innocent he still was despite everything that had happened in his life. His clothes were barely in better condition than her clothes had been and yet he had refused to remove them. Still though, the torn fabric had given her a fantastic view of his sculpted body and somehow the scars he still had over the right side of his body had only made him _more_ appealing. She shook herself out of the memory before it could consume her.

The only reason she wanted to wear clothes once she could afford to unseal them was to keep unwanted attention off her on the chance she did come across someone. She didn’t want to become even more of a target because some sick fuck thought her barely pubescent body was attractive and tried to have his way with her. It would only piss her off and she would be less likely to control herself when she violently killed him. As stated before, she was trying to _avoid_ leaving a traceable trail.

She was relieved when she finally reached the edge of the island nearest to Fire and the ocean. She could have used the partially finished bridge but that was a dead giveaway and would quickly have her spotted. She took a quick dip in the shallows to wash herself free of her own blood before carefully releasing her chakra and using it to step up onto the water. Once she was on top of the water rather than in it she started to run as quickly as he could toward Fire and the mainland.

She could dress herself later when she was sure Kakashi wouldn’t be able to sense her. She knew she was probably just being paranoid. She knew that he likely wouldn’t even discover that she was ‘dead’ until well into the next day if not later. She knew that he was unlikely to leave Sasuke and Naruto behind to chase after her ‘killer’.

He actually _liked_ Sasuke and Naruto so he had a vested interest in keeping them alive over following the killer of a no name uppity civilian as he probably saw her. While that knowledge soothed her, it made her no less paranoid and so still she ran onward. She hoped to reach the mainland by the time the sun dropped. It wasn’t like she _couldn’t_ travel at night but like many other shinobi she had a harder time seeing in the dark without a technique to aid her which she was not willing to risk when she was less than a day’s travel from Wave.

There was always a chance that Kakashi would sense that as she was already using chakra to keep herself above the water as she ran. He wouldn’t even have to leave the boys behind to follow her if he sensed her leaving. He could easily send a shadow clone in his place and even a clone was strong enough right now to bring her back by force. It was important that her ruse worked so she was marked down as killed in action rather than as a missing nin.

She didn’t want Konoha’s hunter nin on her trail while she wasn’t yet at full power. This in mind, she ran for hours upon hours, using chakra to both stay above the water and augment her speed just a bit. When she finally reached the mainland she was exhausted. She still had plenty of chakra but physical exhaustion had nothing to do with that aside from the fact that it could be caused by chakra exhaustion.

She absolutely _had_ to stop somewhere and even then she was reluctant to do so despite the burning in her lungs and muscles. Finally though she gave in and found a hollow below a tree to tuck her small body into. She had been running for so long that the sun had well started on its way to setting and leaving her in darkness anyway. She didn’t know the terrain around this area well, having not been here much aside from when she had traveled to Wave both this time and the last time around.

This meant that she wouldn’t be able to navigate it well in the dark anyway. Despite herself she felt her fatigue from the non-stop run start to get to her. She only had enough time to set up some rudimentary if vicious trap seals on the wood of the tree roots around her and activate them before she was out like a light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed the second chapter. The next will be pretty much word for word the English dub of the battle of the bridge mission aside from Sakura not being there and the end of it. Feel free to skim chapter 3 instead of fully reading if you aren't interested in basically rehashing canon.


	3. The Battle of the Bridge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle on the bridge of Wave happens and Kakashi discovers Sakura's plan after it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot of this is verbatim to canon aside from Sakura not being there and the end of the chapter. Skim it if you want to rather than going back through canon or read it completely if you'd like.

Back in Wave, Kakashi was wondering idly where Sakura was but dismissed it as her being out still training like she had said she was going to do. It seemed that the girl did little else if what she had said was anything to go by.

He decided to leave her be seeing as for a time they were at least moderately safe. Zabuza shouldn’t be up and about for a few days and he doubted the fake hunter nin that had taken him away would challenge them himself. He doubted Zabuza’s partner was strong enough to challenge a Jounin or he would likely have stepped in earlier. Just to be safe, he decided to at least send a shadow clone to check on the boy’s training progress and safety while he stayed with Tazuna.

For all he knew Gato could get impatient and send bandits after Tazuna. As a civilian the man wouldn’t be able to handle even that so he needed to be with Tazuna to stop any attempts on his life. He formed the necessary hand signs to make the clone and it took off without a word. Verbal instructions weren’t necessary as a shadow clone possessed all the knowledge of the original and thus already knew what it was made to do.

Less than a minute later he received his clone’s memories of the boys. They were not only safe but making progress in their training as well. After he had ascertained this he turned his mind back to his open book, reading for the rest of the day while also idly keeping an eye on Tazuna and his progress with the bridge. At the end of the day he met Sasuke back at Tazuna’s and was proud to learn that the boy had mastered the exercise.

He was also unsurprised to learn that Naruto was still out training. If Kakashi let him, the boy would likely train well into the night. Instead of stopping him Kakashi let the boy do as he would and enjoyed the cooking of Tazuna’s daughter. After dinner both he and Sasuke retired to bed though Kakashi slept lightly as his training dictated to keep an ear out for trouble.

When they awoke the next morning to find that neither Naruto nor Sakura had returned he felt momentary concern before brushing it off. They had both likely trained all night or at least well into the night. They would likely be back during the day for the next phase of their training. He was sure that Naruto had mastered tree walking by now.

The fact that Sakura and Sasuke had finished before him would likely have been all the motivation Naruto would need to finish the exercise. He and Sasuke both went to the bridge with Tazuna that day as it didn’t seem as if Tazuna’s family were in any danger. When they arrived he set Sasuke to start on water walking while he watched from the bridge. He amused himself by watching Sasuke’s countless falls into the water before he finally got a decent if somewhat shaky grasp on the technique.

He was finally able to keep himself above the surface of the water and on his feet to boot. When hours had passed and there was still no sign of Naruto or Sakura Kakashi started to become genuinely concerned. While it wasn’t strange that Naruto might still be sleeping he knew from their time here that Sakura was an early riser and that she at least should have met them here by now. Before he could give it any more thought he noticed a dense fog roll quickly into the area and his hackles rose.

This fog was clearly unnatural and it was saturated with chakra to boot. It looked like his estimation of Zabuza’s recovery time was off. He hurried to where he knew Sasuke was and warned him in a quiet voice of what was going on. When they got back onto the bridge he and Sasuke sought out Tazuna and thanks to his nose found the man quickly.

Before he could leave Sasuke with Tazuna with the instruction to protect the man Zabuza was upon him. Only the clash of metal on metal a second later told him that Zabuza’s partner had likely gone after Tazuna and that Sasuke had protected the man. Once the battle started he didn’t have time to think of anything aside from the battle he was in. He had thankfully recovered his chakra by now but he was still a bit shaky on his feet thanks to the rapid loss of it the last time they had fought.

Because of this he was only just able to keep up with Zabuza and prevent him from sending out water clones to kill Tazuna or Sasuke while Kakashi was occupied by the man himself. It was a vicious battle and he only knew when Naruto arrived thanks to his loud entrance. He sighed with relief, knowing that Sasuke’s chances of survival had gone up thanks to his other student’s presence. Naruto may be loud and rambunctious but he was also remarkably strong already and he knew when to get serious.

Further into the battle with Zabuza he felt a sudden, oppressive and malicious chakra and his blood turned to ice in his veins. He knew that chakra. He had felt it once before on the day he had lost the rest of his small, makeshift family. Luckily, though he was distracted by the chillingly familiar chakra Zabuza was also distracted by it.

He wanted desperately to see what the hell was going on with his students that Naruto was using the fox’s chakra but if he didn’t beat Zabuza here and now his students would soon be dead anyway. He forced his attention back to the battle and used Zabuza’s distraction to summon his pack. He used an earth jutsu to send them underground and they were quickly able to find Zabuza by the smell of Kakashi’s own blood on his blade from a wound he had allowed himself to receive earlier in the battle. As his pack piled onto Zabuza he started to charge up his first original jutsu.

Luckily Zabuza must have lost enough concentration to drop the hidden mist jutsu because the mist was quickly clearing up and giving him a clear view of the man. As he charged the man with his arm wreathed in lightning something happened that neither Zabuza nor even Kakashi with his sharingan had predicted. Zabuza’s apprentice jumped in the way at the last second and suddenly his arm was through the chest of a boy nearly his team’s age. He could see the devastation that quickly crossed the face of his opponent and while he felt for him, he also knew that Zabuza had brought this upon himself.

His thoughts were only proven correct when Zabuza’s expression turned blood thirsty in seconds. He swung his blade with the arm one of Kakashi’s pack hadn’t injured, trying to slice through the body of his partner to take Kakashi down as well. Kakashi of course was easily fast enough to jump back from the attempted blow, bringing the body of Zabuza’s partner with him as he did. Kakashi was disgusted that the man could even think of using the death of his partner this way, especially seeing how devastated Zabuza had looked when it had first happened.

Naruto snarled at the man for trying to treat his partner that way and Kakashi had to tell the boy to stay out of the fight. No matter how angry Naruto was, Zabuza was still a Jounin. There was no way Naruto could take the man on, even as injured as he was. He was determined to finish this fight now more than ever.

The fight restarted in an instant and Zabuza was slowed immensely. While he could tell that a part of it was because of the injury caused by his dog, he was also aware that Zabuza should still have been faster than this. It seemed that his partner’s death had affected him more than he would show. This allowed Kakashi to completely immobilize Zabuza’s already injured arm with a couple kunai.

He was now easily dodging all of Zabuza’s attempted hits and while he could have finished the fight, something in his gut told him not to just yet. He didn’t like it but he hadn’t gotten this far in life by ignoring his instincts. Instead of killing blows he merely punched Zabuza when he got too close and dodged the swings of the man’s huge sword.

“I’ll split you in half!” Zabuza roared in frustration, swinging at Kakashi again. He easily dodged once again and watched as Zabuza swung down at the bridge in frustration. He was tired of the mock battle quickly and his own patience was wearing thin no matter what his instincts told him. Before Zabuza could make another move he appeared behind him and gripped the back of the man’s neck tightly to hold him in place.

“Look at you. You’re falling apart. I knew you didn’t have what it takes for the long haul.” Kakashi said derisively. While he knew that losing someone was hard on anyone, Zabuza was unraveling at the seams. He wasn’t even a challenge anymore.

“What did you say?” Zabuza growled angrily.

“You have no idea what _real_ strength _is_.” Kakashi said, his mind flashing through the faces of his loved ones. _They_ were his strength, even the ones who were gone now. Gritting his teeth, he decided for the first time to ignore his instincts and finish this. He wanted to be done with this battle.

He twirled a few kunai before gripping them tightly, preparing to finish Zabuza off and ignore his earlier gut feeling.

“Game over. You lose.” Kakashi said grimly. As he swung his kunai the scene seemed to slow down as Zabuza looked back at him. He recognized the look as one of a cornered animal.

Zabuza would not let himself be killed so easily. This was proven as the man quickly swung his sword back behind him. Kakashi only just had enough time to change the direction of his stab, jamming his kunai into the arm swinging at him with the sword and jumping out of the way of the swing. Even still, the hilt of the blade hit him as he jumped away.

The hit forced the sword out of Zabuza’s grip and it went skidding across the bridge, producing sparks as it slid across the metal of the bridge. It finally came to a stop near one of the rails. Kakashi was annoyed that the battle was still technically ongoing even if they were currently at a standstill.

“Now _both_ of your arms are useless. What now? You can’t even make hand signs.” He said, trying to drive home to Zabuza that he would not be escaping here with his life. The man and his partner had endangered the life of two of his students and Zabuza himself had endangered the life of _all_ of his students on the way to Wave.

The man would pay for trying to take his team from him. Kakashi was not one to take a threat to his team lightly even if this team was different from Team Minato. Zabuza growled but before he could say anything he was cut off by the sound of wood hitting the bridge. This brought both Jounin’s attention to the man standing at the head of the unfinished part of the bridge, a large group of what looked like hired bandits behind him.

“Did quite a job on you, didn’t he Zabuza? You look like yesterday’s sashimi.” The man mocked. So, this was Gato. Kakashi wondered why the man thought it was a good idea to mock even an obviously injured missing nin even with his apparent backup.

“I must say I’m… disappointed.” Gato continued. Did the man seriously think that his bandits could take out not one but _two_ Jounin? Kakashi decided to stay his hand concerning Zabuza. If this was going the way he thought then Zabuza was soon to be under no contract to fight them.

“Gato? I don’t understand. What is all this? Why are you here and who are these thugs you’ve brought with you?” Zabuza said, sounding genuinely confused.

Kakashi was surprised that he hadn’t taken the hint yet so he decided to just let this play out. If he wasn’t mistaken, Gato was about to make a massive mistake.

“Well you see, there’s been a slight change in plan.” Gato said, smirking as he lifted his cane and tapped it on the bridge as he had earlier. “According to the new plan you die right here on this bridge, Zabuza.” He finished smugly. Zabuza’s eyes widened in anger.

“What?” he growled. Kakashi couldn’t blame him. Even _he_ hadn’t thought someone could be stupid enough to threaten even an injured missing nin and think he could escape with his life. It just wasn’t feasible.

“That’s right. You’re too expensive so I’ve decided to take you off the payroll. Of course, even these thugs I brought with me cost _something_ so if you _could_ manage to slaughter a few of them before they take you down I’d appreciate it. Think you can manage that, _Demon Ninja of the Mist_?” Gato said, his tone mocking as he said Zabuza’s title. Gato let loose a mocking little chuckle.

“Look at you. You look about as demonic as a wet kitten.” Gato said, causing the thugs behind him to laugh uproariously. Wow, he really _did_ think his hired thugs were going to be a match for Zabuza. He let his full attention go back to Zabuza to see what he would do.

“Well well, Kakashi. It would seem our fight is at an end. Since I am no longer in Gato’s employ, Tazuna is safe. We have no quarrel.” Zabuza pointed out, looking only at Gato as he contemplated all the ways he wished to tear the man apart.

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right.” Kakashi conceded, turning back to Gato and his army of thugs. The number might be imposing if they were all skilled ninja but they were just an army of thugs. This would be over quickly. They watched in silence as Gato approached the body of Zabuza’s partner.

“That reminds me.” Gato said as he stopped. “You little punk! You grabbed me and nearly broke my arm!” He continued, nudging the boy’s corpse with his foot. “I’ve been meaning to repay you for that!” he said before drawing back his foot and kicking the corpse.

Naruto gasped behind him, likely appalled that anyone would treat the dead so disrespectfully. He himself was disgusted by the man’s actions and Zabuza was clearly livid.

“Hah! I only wish he was alive to feel it!” Gato said, prodding the boy’s pale face with his cane mockingly.

“Get away!” Naruto yelled from behind him. “Get away from him you scum!” Naruto yelled again, running toward the disgusting man before Kakashi caught him by the collar.

“Hey, stop! Use your head!” he scolded, wrapping both arms around Naruto to stop him from squirming away. He let go when Naruto finally stopped trying to go after Gato.

“Well what about you Zabuza?! You gonna let him do that?” Naruto demanded angrily.

“Be quiet you fool! Haku’s dead. What does it matter?” Zabuza said. Despite his words Kakashi knew the boy’s death pained the man.

“What? You mean you could just stand there and watch him get treated like a dog?! You and Haku were together for _years_! Doesn’t that mean anything?” Naruto demanded, angry that Zabuza didn’t seem to care at all that a pig like Gato was desecrating his partner’s corpse.

“You don’t understand the way of shinobi. I merely _used_ him just as Gato used me.” Zabuza sneered. Naruto drew back in shock.

“Now it’s over! His usefulness is at an end. The loss of his strength and skill, yes; _that_ means something to me. But the boy? Nothing.” Zabuza said, his voice quieter now. The man’s heart wasn’t in what he was saying. Naruto might not be able to tell but Kakashi could.

“If you mean that, you’re an even bigger rat than I thought!” Naruto said angrily. Kakashi grabbed Naruto’s shoulder both as a mitigating gesture and a restraining hold.

“Okay, that’s enough. Calm down Naruto. He’s not the enemy. Not right now.” Kakashi said, trying to stop his student from doing something stupid. With surprising strength, Naruto knocked his hand away and growled.

“Shut up! Far as I’m concerned he’s enemy number one!” Naruto said, pointing at Zabuza. Zabuza said nothing, merely looking evenly back at Naruto. Naruto’s breath grew heavier with his anger.

“Why you…” Naruto said, too angry to continue. “You ungreatful…” Naruto said, stalling again as his words failed him in his anger. “After everything he did for you! Haku _lived_ for you!” Naruto said angrily.

“You were the most important thing in the _world_ to him! And he meant _nothing_ to you?! Nothing at all?!” Naruto demanded, angry for the dead boy and his devotion to what Naruto saw as an unthankful man.

“While he was sacrificing _everything_ for you, you never felt anything at all for _him_?!” Naruto demanded. Kakashi could hear how much this was affecting Naruto and he wondered what he was missing. Yeah, the story was a sad one but Naruto didn’t know the boy, did he?

“And if _I_ become stronger, does that mean… I’ll become as cold hearted as you are?” Naruto asked, his voice wavering. “He threw his _life_ away! And for what?! For you and your _dream_?!” He asked, shaking his head in denial.

Kakashi could smell the salt in the air unlike that of the ocean and realized that his student was crying. He hadn’t known Naruto would be so affected by this. He had more empathy than Kakashi could ever fake.

“You _never_ let him have a dream of his own but he didn’t care. And you just toss him aside like he was nothing. A broken tool.” Naruto said, the waver in his voice ever present. His fists were clenched and his head bowed as he cried for the life and death of a boy he barely knew.

“Man, that’s _so_ wrong! So _wrong_!” Naruto said, finally falling silent.

“You talk too much.” Zabuza said, causing Naruto to look up at him. Kakashi could already tell that the man had been affected by Naruto’s words. This was proven by the teardrops that hit the bridge at the man’s feet. “Your words cut deep; deeper than any blade.” Zabuza said, raising his head to stare at the sky.

Kakashi kept his silence out of respect both for Zabuza’s loss and for Naruto’s newfound ability to make even a hardened shinobi like Zabuza show emotion. Zabuza continued speaking after a moment.

“While he fought you his heart was breaking in two. You see, Haku was always too soft and too kind. He felt pain and sorrow and now _curse_ him I feel them too! And something else; I feel content that this is the way it ends.” Zabuza said, surprising Kakashi.

To show emotion was one thing, but to admit to it was something else entirely. He silently marveled at his student’s ability to make even a feared missing nin do such. He heard a tearing sound and saw the bandages fall from around Zabuza’s face.

“Well, cat got your tongue? Are you _so_ surprised to discover that I’m human? Even shinobi are human. No matter how hard we try to escape that simple fact, we _always_ fail. Well, at least _I_ have failed.” Zabuza said.

Kakashi didn’t consider a show of emotion or showing that one was human to be a failure no matter what the rules stated. He had gone down that road once and he had learned his lesson painfully.

“Boy, give me your kunai.” Zabuza said. Kakashi didn’t try to stop him, already having an idea of what Zabuza wanted to do. It was the same thing he would want to do in this situation.

“Here.” Naruto said, tossing the kunai to Zabuza. Unsurprisingly, Zabuza caught it in his teeth. Kakashi could see it even behind Zabuza as he was. Zabuza was a blur as he suddenly rushed Gato, clearly intent on taking him down.

“That’s enough of this! Do it! Take him down _now_!” Gato said with a scream of fright, running back through the crowd of thugs to try to escape his fate. The thugs gave a cry of delight, clearly knowing nothing about what they were truly facing.

“He must be out of his mind! One against all of us? What’s he thinking?” a thug at the front asked before he was abruptly sliced through by Zabuza’s kunai. The scene after that was one of absolute carnage as Zabuza tore through the men to get to Gato.

He was slowed enough that one thug was able to stab him but he kept going even with the weapon in his back. Kakashi knew he would do nothing else. He emerged on the other side with yet another weapon sticking out of his back and still gunning for Gato. Kakashi secretly delighted in the fear Gato showed the man now.

It served the scum right for not only what he did to this county but for what he did to Zabuza and his partner as well. Finally Zabuza reached Gato and Kakashi could tell exactly when Zabuza drove the kunai into the man by Gato’s expression. Zabuza paused, likely to savor the moment Gato’s death started. His pause cost him as multiple weapons were driven into his back, making him resemble some sort of bizarre humanoid porcupine.

Zabuza stumbled forward with a cough but didn’t fall, still standing yet hunched over.

“You crazy fool! If you’re so eager to join your friend, go ahead but you’re not taking _me_! Not this time!” Gato said, his voice hoarse.

“I won’t be joining Haku. Where he’s gone I cannot follow.” Zabuza said, standing back up straight. He started to stagger toward Gato and the man started to back away.

“Stay back! Stay back!” Gato demanded though of course Zabuza ignored his words.

“We wouldn’t be welcome where Haku’s gone to.” Zabuza said as he stopped less than an inch from the frightened man. “Hell’s where we’re going Gato! I can’t think of a more fitting destination for a demon ninja. Can you?!” Zabuza asked, his tone one of vindictive satisfaction.

“I’m told there are many demons down there of all shapes and sizes! Oh yes, I should fit _right_ in. You on the other hand, Gato; well I fear you’re in for a long and very painful eternity!” Zabuza said with a manic grin, ripping the kunai out of Gato with his teeth and slicing the man with it. He continued to cut over and over until finally he sliced the man’s throat, the force of the swing causing Gato to fly up and off the unfinished end of the bridge into the water below.

There was a shocked silence from the thugs and everything became still for a few moments. This was dispelled when Zabuza turned his gaze toward the thugs gathered on the bridge. They all stepped back in fear, unconsciously clearing a path for him to walk through the crowd to the other side. Zabuza dropped the kunai and started to stagger toward his partner on the other side of the crowd of thugs, nearly falling over near the end of them.

“Haku…” Zabuza said, clearly forcing himself to remain standing as he raised his head to the body of his partner. “So this is… goodbye… at last.” He continued, taking in painful breaths with each pause. “Not once did I ever thank you, Haku. Forgive me for that.” He said as he finally fell forward, unable to keep himself standing any longer. Naruto couldn’t stand the sight and turned away in obvious grief.

“Don’t turn away.” Kakashi told his student, gaining his attention as he said this. It was important for him to learn this lesson here and now. “When you live like a warrior this is how it ends.” Kakashi said, knowing that he couldn’t keep this reality from Naruto if he wanted to boy to survive in this world. Meanwhile, somewhere behind them Sasuke was coming to from his death-like state.

‘Where am I? Am I alive?’ he asked himself silently before opening his eyes. He saw the old man they were trying to protect. At first he thought that the old man had died as well but he then realized they were still on the bridge.

“Old man, did we win?” Sasuke asked him with a little difficulty. Tazuna smiled at the boy and nodded, though it was a weak smile at best. He wondered what was happening. He forced himself to sit up to see for himself. He needed to know that they were out of danger.

“How’s Naruto? And what happened to that guy in the mask?” he asked the man, not seeing the boy or the enemy anywhere near them.

“Your friend is fine. You did well in protecting him. The boy in the mask however… he died not too long ago.” Tazuna said, feeling for the boy even if his goal had been to kill him.

“Dead? But how? Did Naruto do it?” Sasuke asked, shocked. That was one of the toughest people he had ever faced! Kakashi had been fighting his own battle so he couldn’t have done it. Had Naruto really defeated someone that he had nearly died to?

“I’m not sure. You ninja move too fast for an old man like me to see sometimes. It looks like he was protecting that man.” Tazuna said, pointing to the downed body of Zabuza. Sasuke looked and saw that not only was Zabuza down but so was Haku, just as he was told.

‘He never meant to kill me from the start.’ Sasuke realized. The boy had been attempting to finish his mission just as Sasuke’s team had. He looked farther and realized the rest of his team minus Sakura was still facing down a crowd of what looked like bandits.

“Wait, where’s Sakura?” He asked the old man suddenly, startling him a bit.

“Oh, the girl with the pink hair? I haven’t seen her at all today or last night. I figured she would show up eventually and your leader didn’t seem too concerned so I didn’t bother thinking about it.” He answered. That didn’t seem right.

‘Even if she were training on her own and stayed out all night like Naruto, she should have been back by now. Why is she not here?’ he asked himself, his brow furrowed with concern. Of course, he would never admit to anyone that he was concerned about Sakura’s welfare. With how she had acted in the academy he had a good reason for not wanting to seem too favorable toward her.

She had gotten better once they were on a team together but he was still wary of her going back to her fangirl ways if he ever decided to be even polite to her. Shaking himself out of his thoughts he forced himself to stand, slowly trudging toward his team as he tried to get feeling back into his extremities. He had to let at least Naruto know he was okay. Once he was finally just behind Naruto he placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder, startling him and getting his attention.

“Hey, dobe. Glad to see you’re still standing.” He said sincerely. Naruto gave him a teary smile.

“But how?” Naruto asked him, mystified. He turned back to the body of Haku, remembering Zabuza’s words.

“While he fought you, his heart was breaking in two. You see, Haku was always too soft and too kind.” His memory replayed in Zabuza’s voice.

‘I see.’ Naruto said to himself silently. Haku had never wanted to kill them from the beginning.

“Well well, will wonders never cease? Amazing.” Kakashi said warmly. Sasuke felt his cheeks heat up in embarrassment and decided not to give the statement any attention.

“Hey! Yoo hoo! Don’t go getting too comfortable.” one of the thugs said, tapping his staff on the bridge to get their attention.

“This party ain’t over yet! Who’s gonna pay us now that Gato’s gone?” another asked from beside the thug at the front who’d spoken first.

“No way were gonna leave here empty handed so we’ll just have to hit that village and see what they’ve got for us!” The first thug said, causing a cheer to go up around the group of thugs.

“Not good.” Kakashi said succinctly, causing Naruto and Sasuke to turn their heads toward him.

“Come on Kakashi-sensei. You _must_ have a jutsu that can take care of this bunch of losers!” Naruto said, unwilling to just do nothing while the thugs attacked the village.

“Not right now. I used too much of my chakra.” Kakashi said, chagrined. He could fight them off but there were too many to take out at once. They could do irreparable damage to the village and its people before he could take them all out.

It would be one thing for them to attack him and his team because he could protect his students if they did that and still eventually take them all out. Having them spread all over the village doing damage in the mean time while he tried to hunt them all down would take too long. Too many people would die at the rate this was going. He needed to think of a plan before everything went to hell.

“Get ‘em boys!” the first thug called out, causing the thugs to thunder toward them. Damn, he needed more time! His team was good but they were still just Genin right now. A group this large could kill his students by sheer overwhelming numbers if he wasn’t careful, even if they were just hired thugs.

The thugs were suddenly stopped in their tracks by a bolt from a crossbow flying toward them to hit the bridge right before them. The thugs, Kakashi and his team all looked to the end of the bridge nearest to the village to see what looked like every person in the village armed to the best of their abilities. It looked like they had grabbed anything that could be used as a weapon before coming here. Kakashi smiled as he realized that these people had gained their fighting spirit back.

“There’s one little thing you’re forgetting about! Before you set one foot in our village you’ll have to go through all of us!” one of the villagers said, causing a cheer to go up among the village masses as they all raised their weapons into the air.

“Inari!” Naruto said happily. The boy chuckled.

“Heroes usually show up at the last minute, you know!” the kid said, leading Kakashi to believe that there was something he missed. It sounded like the kid was quoting something back to Naruto.

“They’ve all come. The whole village.” Tazuna said, tearing up. He too was glad to see that his village had gained their fighting spirit back. The thugs all looked far more wary to attack now that numbers were not on their side. Naruto chuckled before crossing his hands in a familiar hand sign.

“Shadow Clone Jutsu!” Naruto called out, producing four clones to make a total of five of him. Kakashi marveled at Naruto’s sheer amount of chakra.

‘Hm, I might have just enough chakra left to help you out.’ Kakashi thought, making the same hand sign though he secretly used a different jutsu.

“Shadow Clone Jutsu!” Kakashi called out, producing illusions of himself that spanned across the bridge. “Kakashi Style!” every Kakashi called out. He knew that even if he couldn’t actually produce that many shadow clones, the sheer image of numbers should be intimidating enough in its own right. He was right too, as the thugs all cried out in alarm.

“Okay, still wanna fight?” the illusions and Kakashi all asked at once. The thugs obviously didn’t like their chances after that little show as they all took off running back to the ship they had docked to the unfinished side of the bridge. The villagers all gathered at the side of the bridge to watch them leave.

“Victory!” Inari cheered, the villagers all following him with a wordless cheer of their own. As the villagers cheered Kakashi left them to it and made his way to Zabuza’s downed body, stopping right in front of him.

“Sounds like it’s over.” Zabuza said weakly, not bothering to try to move.

“Yeah.” Kakashi said quietly. His respect for the man had grown during the battle with him.

“Kakashi, I have a favor to ask.” Zabuza said a little more strongly.

“What is it?” Kakashi asked though he already had an idea of what Zabuza wanted.

“Take me to him. Before I go I need to see him one last time.” Zabuza requested, his single visible eye staring up at Kakashi. Kakashi closed his eyes in respect, slanting his Hitai-ate back over his Sharingan as he did.

“Sure.” He said quietly, feeling grief for the man and how things had ended up despite him being an enemy not long ago. Kakashi carefully took the weapons out of Zabuza’s back and threw them to the side, rolling him over so he could lift him. Once Zabuza was in his arms he took him solemnly over to the body of his partner, walking slowly to avoid jarring the man’s injuries. Snow started to fall around them as he walked, causing exclamations of disbelief from the villagers.

“Is it you, Haku? Are you weeping?” Zabuza asked quietly. Kakashi knew he wasn’t meant to hear it so he ignored it and kept carefully walking. He walked around Haku’s body and stopped, laying Zabuza carefully on his back beside the boy.

“Thank you, Kakashi.” Zabuza said as Kakashi turned around to walk back to his students. He stood with them though he didn’t turn back toward Zabuza at first, watching the man over his shoulder for a moment before turning around fully. He watched solemnly as the man said his goodbye to his partner. Naruto started to cry beside him and he knew that he couldn’t console the boy. This was something that one had to bear on one’s own.

“He told me… where he came from it was always snowing. All the time.” Naruto said between sniffles.

“Of course. His spirit was as pure as the snow.” Kakashi said solemnly, realizing like Naruto had earlier that the boy hadn’t tried to actually kill his students even when they were his enemies. “You never know, Zabuza. Maybe you will join him there. Who’s to say?” He said to the dead man quietly, silently hoping that was the case as he said it.

Naruto didn’t want to just leave the two dead shinobi lying on the bridge and Kakashi agreed with him. Thus, he and Naruto brought them to a clearing away from the village and buried them properly, using makeshift wooden markers and Zabuza’s sword as grave markers. Sasuke followed slowly behind, letting them do what they wanted and merely following along. When they got back to Tazuna’s to stay another night before they left, no one was home as all of the villagers were currently out celebrating their freedom.

It was obvious that none of the present Team 7 felt like celebrating so of course they didn’t. Once they were settled around the table, Naruto asked the question that had been on all of their minds since they got back to find the house empty.

“Where’s Sakura-chan? Shouldn’t she have been back here by now?” Naruto asked, looking at Kakashi. Sasuke stayed silent but was wondering the same thing. Despite what he thought of it initially, they _were_ a team now.

“I don’t know. She stayed out last night to train like you did but she never returned.” Kakashi said.

“What are you waiting for?! We have to go find her!” Naruto said, a little angry that his teacher didn’t seem to care that she was missing.

“Calm down Naruto. I was going to go look for her anyway. I doubt she’s in any trouble. She probably just wanted to train on her own.” Kakashi said, standing up to do just that.

Despite his low chakra stores, he still had enough chakra to summon at least one of his pack. His nose was efficient but his dogs’ noses were even more so.

“Stay here while I go find her. She doesn’t know that we’re leaving tomorrow so she wouldn’t know to come back yet. I’ll return with her soon.” Kakashi said before he left the house. Outside he pulled out his summoning scroll and once again used some blood from the sluggishly bleeding wound on his chest to summon one of his ninken. Pakkun appeared in a puff of smoke, waving his paw at his summoner.

“Hey boss, what’s up? Is the battle over?” Pakkun asked.

“Yeah, it’s over. I don’t need you for battle. I need you to help sniff out my errant student. Sakura has been gone since yesterday morning and she hasn’t come back yet.” Kakashi explained. Pakkun looked concerned after this.

“Is she okay? Why aren’t you watching over all of your pups?” Pakkun asked chidingly. Kakashi shook his head.

“She’s probably fine. She is like I used to be. She’s more concerned about her training than her teammates. She gave me the impression that she didn’t need me standing over her shoulder so I gave her what she wanted and left her to her training.” Kakashi said, shrugging a shoulder sheepishly.

“You should have at least left a shadow clone to hide and watch her so you knew where she went.” Pakkun said, giving Kakashi the stink eye. Kakashi held his hands up in defeat, knowing that Pakkun was right.

“Okay, okay. I won’t leave her on her own anymore. Just help me find her so we can prepare to leave in the morning.” Kakashi said placatingly. Pakkun huffed but did as he asked, locking onto her scent in less than a minute and taking off.

As they got closer to where she apparently was he saw a change in his ninken. Before he could ask what Pakkun had smelled he caught the scent himself and rushed past his ninken toward the place it was emanating from.

‘Please let me be mistaken. Please let this be something else!’ he prayed to any deity that would listen. It was obvious however as he appeared in the clearing Sakura was in that no deity had deigned to listen to him. On top of the overwhelming scent of blood was the picture before him.

Sakura was on her back, her pink hair splayed out on the ground around her and her throat and chest covered in dried blood. The wound across her throat was obvious even from where he was standing and he couldn’t have stopped the whine that built in the back of his throat even if he had tried. Her face was frozen in an expression of shock and would be from then on. Pakkun arrived beside him, staying silent in respect for his summoner.

“S-Sakura? Come on, this isn’t funny. Drop the genjutsu and get out here!” Kakashi demanded, a waver in his voice. When no one answered him he raised his hands in a seal.

“Dispel!” he called out, disrupting his chakra to dispel what _had_ to be an illusion. The scene before him didn’t waver and he started to shake but he wasn’t going to give up yet. He pulled up his Hitai-ate, ignoring his near chakra exhaustion as he opened his eye to reveal the Sharingan. The scene before him stayed as it was and he closed his eye to rub at it furiously.

“Pakkun, my Sharingan isn’t working right. It won’t dispel this. Bite me and see if pain will dispel it.” He said, his voice tight. Pakkun shook his head.

“Boss… Kakashi, this won’t dispel. It isn’t a genjutsu.” He said solemnly. Kakashi growled at his ninken and took out a kunai.

“If you won’t bite me I’ll have to cause myself pain to dispel it!” he said angrily, jamming his kunai into his arm before his ninken could think about trying to stop him. The pain was immense and yet still the scene before him didn’t waver. He took in a sharp breath as the reality he was trying to deny finally hit him. She was dead.

Sakura, his student was dead and he hadn’t even cared enough to look for her until they were going to leave the next day. He dropped to his knees as he stared blankly at his student’s corpse, his Sharingan burning the scene into his memory forevermore. How had he already failed so badly? How had he already lost a student and to his own carelessness no less?

He looked back over his memories of his last conversation with her and cursed himself. Just because she had reminded him of himself at a younger age didn’t mean he had to be so hostile to her. She was young. She could have learned better if given the time to do so.

Now, because he had been childish and left her to her own devices, it was time she would never have. She would never learn what teammates could mean to her. She would never reach whatever goals she had in mind when talking to him. She would never grow up into the exceptional kunoichi he knew she could have been.

He didn’t realize he was crying until Pakkun licked his face to try and comfort him and he went to wipe the saliva away. He swallowed harshly, feeling too weak to stand at the moment.

“Pakkun.” He said hoarsely, bringing his ninken to attention. “Get to Konoha and inform them of what has happened. I need someone to come retrieve the… the corpse.” He said, nearly choking on the word. “The boys don’t need to see this. They’ve seen enough death today.” He said, his throat tight with grief.

Pakkun nodded solemnly without a word, taking off to go do as requested. He hated leaving Kakashi in this state but it couldn’t be helped. Kakashi didn’t have nearly enough chakra to summon another of his brothers to help console him and Konoha needed to know right away. Kakashi watched his ninken run until he disappeared into the trees before turning back to his deceased student.

He took in a shuddering breath before forcing himself to stand, wiping the tears from his face and slowly heading back to Tazuna’s house where his remaining students waited for him. Once there he took the kunai out of his arm and wrapped it in bandages, using a low level genjutsu to disguise the new wound and the wrapping around it. He waited to go inside until he was sure he wasn’t crying anymore, not wanting to alarm his students. No matter what he did though, he wasn’t coming back with Sakura so he knew his students were going to question him.

He couldn’t tell them the truth though, not today. Once he was inside, Naruto started firing questions at him right from the off.

“Kakashi-sensei! Where’s Sakura? Why isn’t she with you? Did you find her?” Naruto asked in rapid succession. Kakashi nodded, trying to make sure his voice wouldn’t waver before speaking.

“Yes, I found her. Sakura is currently indisposed so we won’t see her until we’re back at the village. I sent one of my ninken out to Konoha to get her an escort back. We’ll be leaving tomorrow as planned without her.” Kakashi said, turning abruptly away from his students and heading to bed before anything more could be asked.

Back down around the table, Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other for a long moment before Naruto spoke.

“Something isn’t right with this. Does this seem weird to you?” Naruto asked Sasuke. Sasuke nodded once.

“Yeah, he didn’t give us any reason why we couldn’t just travel with Sakura or why she would need an escort. He didn’t bring her back here either. Something’s up and he isn’t telling us what it is.” Sasuke said pensively, frowning in thought.

“I don’t like this. I don’t like not knowing what’s going on.” Naruto said, frowning as well. Sasuke sighed.

“For right now it doesn’t matter. It sounds like we’ll find out either way when we get back to the village. We should head to bed for now.” Sasuke said, standing up from the table and heading toward the stairs. Naruto nodded in agreement behind him although he couldn’t see it and got up as well. Naruto was still frowning as he fell into an uneasy sleep, plagued by oddly fragmented dreams that were filled by an unfamiliar coppery smell though the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapters starring the rest of Team 7 will not be common but they likely will happen at certain points in the story. Most of the time they will be less than full chapters and will usually be part of chapters following Sakura that are happening around the same time.


	4. An Unexpected Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may or may not have laughed with a little (or a lot of) evil glee at the reactions I got in my reviews for Chapter 3. Sorry, I can’t help it honestly. That’s just my mild megalomania kicking in. Just ignore it and it will go away. I used the actual map for the elemental countries with this so I knew what the hell I was talking about.

Sakura woke up to the sun well in the sky around the same time that the battle of the bridge had started back in Wave, though of course she had no way of knowing this. The battle had happened so long ago for her that she had no way of knowing when it was going to happen as she didn’t remember the day it had happened. She cautiously peeked out of her hollow and extended her senses, only releasing her trap seals once she ascertained that no one was around. Realizing that she was truly alone, she finally crawled out from under the small hollow made by the tree’s roots and unsealed some plain, unremarkable clothing which she quickly put on.

She had special ordered some quite expensive chakra armor from a shop in Konoha but putting that on now would be an easy giveaway to her shinobi status even without a headband telling all and sundry where she had come from. She needed to look like an uninformed civilian so that if she came across anyone they would find her appearance unremarkable and no one would have a trail to follow to find her. This in mind, she unsealed one of her bottles of hair dye and messaged it into her long hair and eyebrows, using chakra to stimulate her hair and eyebrows into absorbing the dye faster. Once she ascertained that it had sat in long enough she rinsed it out in the shallows of the water near the coast line.

Her hair and eyebrows were now a natural looking black, aided by the subtle amount of blue mixed in to give her hair a blue sheen in most light. Once that was done she expelled the water from herself and her clothes using a chakra control technique and unsealed her map. Seeing as she was on the eastern coast of the southern tip of Fire nearest to River she merely had to head west to reach her intended destination. She didn’t know what she would do once she was there but it was better than staying in Fire to risk getting caught.

Once she ascertained the direction she would need to go she quickly unsealed a hair tie and braided her long hair to keep it out of her way. With that out of the way she started running again. She once again ran for hours on end, stopping only when she deemed it safe enough to stop and even then only when she absolutely had to. She wanted to be out of Fire as fast as it was possible for her to be so.

It took her just over a full day to reach the border of River, this time using a jutsu to help her see in the dark so she didn’t have to stop at night. Because of her near constant use of chakra and her infrequent stops she was running low on energy once more, barely giving herself enough time to rest before she kept on. Because of this, her senses weren’t as good as they could be and she found herself accidentally running into a bandit camp right on the border. Seeing a young girl with unusually green eyes and a pretty face stumble into their camp, their minds immediately turned to ways they could use this to their advantage.

She saw their looks of greed as they eyed her up and she sneered. Like hell she was going to let these common thugs lay a hand on her. She was far enough away from Wave by now that this couldn’t be connected to her so she could let loose for a bit if she wanted to. The only one of these men that might be a threat was the obvious leader and that was only if she had been an actual Genin which she was most certainly not.

From what she could ascertain, the man had some actual shinobi training but he was only Chunin level at best. As the men started to come toward her, probably thinking that they looked menacing, she cracked her knuckles in preparation for a fight even if it was going to be an easy one. When the first man got close enough she charged just enough chakra in her fist to rupture his organs and punched him, sending him flying through the air already dead upon meeting her fist. The rest of the bandits stopped and goggled at her while the leader of the thugs laughed.

“Look at this! What a strong girl! We were thinking about selling you off but how would you like to work for me instead? I could use some real muscle in this group of meat heads.” The leader offered, grinning ear to ear. She scoffed, shaking her head.

“You think I would work for someone like _you_? I don’t really care what you do to others. That isn’t any of my business. The problem is that I don’t like working under my inferiors.” She said plainly, watching with glee as the man turned red from anger.

“Well then, if you don’t want to work for me I’ll just have to go with the original plan. Get her, boys! Just make sure you don’t damage her pretty little face. We have to keep that intact if we want anyone to be interested enough to buy her.” He said, causing his men to look at him hesitantly.

“Uh, boss, are you sure that’s a good idea? Look at what she did to Yoshida. He hasn’t moved since she hit him.” One of the thugs said hesitantly. He was, in her opinion, likely the smartest one there aside from herself.

“I don’t care! I want that girl bound and ready for sale within the hour or I’ll have all your heads!” he snarled, making the bandits jump at the volume of his voice. Sakura decided to chime in.

“You know, you guys could all come at me and definitely die or you could let me take out your leader and have a chance of survival. I’d think carefully on this if I were you because _that_ punch was me being gentle. If you would like proof of this statement, watch carefully.” She said, moving over to a large tree near the edge of the camp faster than any of them could see. She put a slightly larger amount of chakra into her fist and hit the tree, turning it to sawdust in an instant.

Every bandit including the leader turned pale at that and the leader was suddenly sweating bullets, unsure if he could take on such a threat no matter how young she was. The bandits aside from their leader all dropped their weapons simultaneously and moved as far away from her and their leader as they could while still remaining in camp.

“He’s all yours Hime!” the intelligent one shouted from across the camp, startling her with the use of a title that she usually associated with Tsunade. The leader looked at his men angrily, still pale.

“You traitors!” he shouted. By the time he turned back to her she was already less than a foot away from him. He startled and stumbled back, his fear of her painted plainly across his face. She grinned at him before cracking her knuckles again, more for intimidation this time than anything.

Still, she had to give the man credit as he steeled himself and pulled out his weapon despite his fear. It wouldn’t do him any good but at least he had some spine left even after her little show. He charged forward and swung at her and she used the minimum movement required to dodge it. She could have easily shattered the sword even without chakra but she wanted to have some fun with this fight, if it could even be called that.

She toyed with him a bit, letting him swing at her and get angrier and angrier when he couldn’t hit her. Finally, he stabbed at her with the sword he held and it was only her distraction at the sudden presence of a large, dense amount of chakra on the northern edge of the camp that allowed him to run her through with it. The pain of it was nothing compared to what Kaguya could do so she just looked annoyed as she turned back to him. He looked triumphant but his triumph turned to an expression of confusion as he saw that she didn’t even look to be in pain.

“Oh no, you ran me through. Whatever shall I do?” she deadpanned, yanking the sword further into herself and thus yanking the man closer to her. Before he could say a word she punched him in the chest, using enough chakra that it splattered his torso instantly, leaving only his head and part of his legs in tact though they flew away from her in the mess. She of course was splattered with gore and it annoyed her greatly.

“Boss!” the thugs yelled in unison, running toward her. Great, she had thought they would be smart enough not to mess with her after that but apparently she was wrong. She was thus startled when they all stopped before her, the intelligent one speaking first.

“Boss, are you okay?! You have a sword in you!” he said, pointing to the sword that still pierced her middle. She was surprised at this.

“You’re… calling me boss?” she deadpanned. It was less of a question and more of a statement but the man answered anyway.

“Well, yeah! You splattered the old boss like a bug and you spared our lives! Why wouldn’t we follow you?” he asked. She sighed and nearly face palmed before realizing that it would just smear the blood across her face. Before she could answer, she heard the sound of both clapping and laughter and turned abruptly to find none other than Hoshigaki Kisame and Uchiha Itachi in the bandit camp, surveying her handiwork.

“That was a good show, girl. You splattered the guy like it was nothing and you even left the head intact so the bounty could be collected!” Kisame said with a grin, his sharp teeth on show as he did so. The thugs collected around her, bearing the weapons they had picked back up on the way to her toward the two men. She didn’t expect Itachi to say anything so when he did it startled her a bit.

“You’ve got a little something there.” He said unconcernedly, pointing to the sword still running her through. She nearly laughed at the absurdness of the understatement but held herself in check. She looked down at the sword, as unconcerned by it as Itachi sounded.

“So I do. Allow me to take care of that. I’ll be with you gentlemen momentarily.” She said. If she were herself prior to the war she might have laughed hysterically at the thought of talking to either one of these men with anything approaching civility but as it was now she was just interested in why they were even here.

As she had said she was going to, she decided to take a moment to take care of her wound. She pulled the sword out of herself carelessly, listening with half an ear to the various protests of the thugs around her. She ignored them and dropped the sword, compressing her innate healing chakra to the wound and watching as it faded away, quickly replaced by new flesh. There was a stunned silence around her as even the two missing nin found her feat impressive. Before long though, the silence was broken by the intelligent thug.

“Hime, that was amazing! How did you heal so quickly from such a grievous wound?” he asked, amazed. She noticed that the two S-Class missing nin were also interested in how she had accomplished it so she decided to downplay it. She didn’t want to make them more interested than they already were.

“It was just a concentration of healing chakra. It’s not a technique worth even mentioning.” She said carelessly, waving the matter away. “Now boys, will you let me through so I can talk to these gentlemen?” she asked the thugs around her. They looked at the missing nin dubiously but heeded her request anyway.

“Alright Hime but please be careful. These men look dangerous.” The intelligent thug said seriously, not even realizing the irony in his statement. They were a group of thugs that would look dangerous to any civilian so he couldn’t really throw stones. Still, she nodded if only to make the bandits relax a bit.

She strode forward as they cleared a path for her, ignoring them as they followed closely behind her like a protective guard.

“What can I do for you gentlemen?” she asked, talking more to Kisame than Itachi. Itachi wasn’t one to be verbose at the best of times so she figured she was likely to get more out of his partner.

“Well, we were here to get the bounty on the previous leader but it looks like you beat us to the punch on killing him. Quite literally too.” Kisame said with a grin. She ignored the pun to ask something that bugged her about that statement.

“Why were you here to collect such a small time bounty? The man wasn’t even tough.” She said, indicating the mess that was left of the man after she had dealt with him.

“Well, that’s obvious. The thing is, his former village underestimated him a bit _too_ much and he got away with some rather valuable items that they would like us to return to them. They want said items back badly enough to pay our organization’s steep price to hire us to take him out and return said items to them.” Kisame said with another grin. She nodded thoughtfully.

“Alright, feel free to search the camp for said items and then please be on your way.” She said, causing a protest to go up among the thugs. She held up a hand to the men and they silenced instantly out of respect for her.

“Now boys, these nice men aren’t here to take any of _your_ things. They are here to get the remains of that scum,” she pointed to the mess of blood, viscera and body parts left of their old leader, “out of here and retrieve the things he stole from the village he left. Unless he gave any of those things to you, which I highly doubt, they will not be making off with anything of yours. Let them do their job and you likely have nothing to fear from them.” She said sternly, causing the thugs to nod their heads though some did so more grudgingly than others.

The men dispersed quickly back into the camp, still looking warily at the two missing nin.

“What exactly did you do to gain such loyalty from these men?” Itachi asked out of curiosity. She shrugged.

“I didn’t kill them. That and their leader was an asshole that wanted them to go against me _after_ seeing me kill one of them with a single punch. I simply told them that if they ignored him and let me take him out, I would spare them.” She said easily. Kisame laughed again while Itachi looked at her with interest.

“Well, _Hime_ , you are quite an interesting girl. I’m sure our leader will also be quite interested in you once he learns of this.” Kisame said before walking away to collect the items they were hired to get back and likely the man’s head as proof of the kill. Rather than following his partner, Itachi stayed behind and silently studied Sakura for a moment, making her itch to be away from him. She knew that she was stronger now but she still wasn’t strong enough or fast enough to take on Uchiha Itachi or his partner and she didn’t really want to try.

“Would you like something?” she asked irritably, not liking being studied by him in the least.

“You know, my little brother is on a team with a girl about your age. You look remarkably like the description given for her as well aside from the hair color.” He said. She had to force herself to stay calm at that, not liking where this was going in the least.

“A description means nothing. There are likely a lot of girls that look like that one including myself. If she’s around my age then she’s likely on the level of a regular Genin so there’s no point in comparing us.” She said nonchalantly. Itachi again studied her silent for a long moment before turning away.

“If that’s your story, _Hime_ , then I will leave it alone for now.” He said before walking away.

‘There’s no way he could know. There could be plenty of girls out there that look like Haruno Sakura and he has no proof that I am the same girl. Aside from that, word shouldn’t have traveled around yet that I’m ‘dead’ since there’s no way they’ve made it back from Wave yet.’ She thought, keeping herself calm. She turned her attention back to the missing nin who took only a few minutes to search before apparently finding the items they were looking for. Once the items were found they made their way back to her.

“Well, Hime. I thank you for letting us search your camp to retrieve the items we were hired to find. We found them with little trouble.” Kisame said genially. She rolled her eyes at him.

“It isn’t _my_ camp. These men are merely following someone strong who beat their leader easily. As for that irritating title, I have a _name_ you know.” She said, a bit irritated that he was still using that stupid title. Kisame merely chuckled and spoke again.

“Is that so? What is your name then, little Hime?” he asked curiously.

“It’s Yuna.” She said shortly, choosing the name arbitrarily. It was a good choice though, seeing as she _did_ intend to bring peace to this world one way or another after she returned Obito’s sanity to him.

“Well then, Yuna, would you like to come with us to meet our leader? I’m sure he would be _very_ interested in your abilities.” He said with an appropriately shark-like grin. She had a feeling that it wasn’t a request. She also had a feeling that he wasn’t talking just about Pein but about Obito or Madara as they knew him as well. This was an opportunity she’d never seen coming but she wasn’t about to pass it up if she could be reunited with Obito sooner.

“I might as well. I have no attachment to this place.” She said, indicating the bandit camp. Kisame grinned and Itachi tilted his head like a curious cat.

“So you have an attachment to some other place then?” he asked, wondering at her choice of words.

“I can’t say that I have.” She said carelessly. She cared more about people than places and most of the people she cared about didn’t know her that well or at all yet anyway so she wouldn’t be missing anything by going with them. She cared about Konoha as a people but the village itself with all of its hidden corruption could go hang for all she cared. She was brought out of her thoughts as the two men started to walk away and she easily followed them.

“Hime, where are you going?” the intelligent bandit from earlier asked, running over to her as she walked toward the two missing nin who were clearly leaving.

“I’m going to meet someone. I’m sure you can handle the camp on your own. Just do what you guys usually do and try not to fight any shinobi if you value your lives.” She said. He visibly struggled with something before speaking again.

“Will you return here?” he asked, glancing back at the camp. She shook her head and his shoulders fell.

“No, I likely won’t return. I have things to do and I can’t be tied down to one place to do them. I know you guys show deference to me now so listen when I tell you this. Let me leave in peace and don’t try to follow. Just live your lives as you had before I came here. You’ll all be just fine without me.” She said soothingly.

“Yes, Hime. I’ll pass your message on to the others. Good luck in whatever it is you’re trying to do.” He said, his voice a little sad. She nodded and turned back around, hurrying a little to catch up to the two missing nin who were now well ahead of her.

She said nothing as she caught up to the two. They all simultaneously broke into a run by silent agreement. It would be better to get their business over with quickly so she could be brought back to the Akatsuki base sooner rather than later. They got to the village the bandit leader left within a few hours of setting off and it was a matter of minutes for them to collect the bounty and return the items they were hired to return. As she waited for them to cash in their bounty and return the items she used the same chakra control technique she had used the other day to expel the gore from herself.

Having done that she unsealed her specially ordered chakra armor and removed her clothes, sealing the clothes away and donning the armor. She then attached her new weapons pouches to both of her thighs. She would need to be properly equipped now that she was going into known dangerous territory. Once her armor and weapons pouches were equipped, she unsealed one of the many black half masks she had bought and put it on.

It was similar to the ones Kakashi wore aside from the color. The armor was chakra conductive and could harden as much as she needed it to depending on how much chakra she put into it. The mask had hidden seals stitched into it with black thread to strengthen the material and make it harder to tear and impossible to be removed by anyone but herself. Itachi and Kisame got back just after she had donned the mask.

“Yo, Hime!” Kisame greeted, making her roll her eyes at the title again. She was never going to live that down it seemed. As he got closer he eyed her new armor, mask and weapons pouches. “Looks like you’ve finally decided to equip yourself. Why the change?” he asked curiously.

“I no longer need to look like a civilian and I’m headed into possibly dangerous territory with two notorious missing nin. It only seemed logical to do so.” She said with a shrug.

“What about your hair?” Itachi asked.

“What about it?” she asked a little defensively.

“It’s long and it could hinder you if anyone surprised you enough to take hold of it.” He said logically. Her face darkened before she spoke.

“I’d like to see anyone _try_ to use it against me. I’m not nearly as delicate as I look. The only ones who can truly challenge me at my current level are S-Class shinobi so unless you are saying you’re going to use it against me, that shouldn’t be a problem for now.” She said with finality. With the end of the conversation they took off once again to whatever base they were taking her to.

She wondered silently if it was the one in River that Team 7 had to rescue Gaara from the last time around before deciding that she didn’t honestly care. She was only here to help further her goals so it didn’t matter which base she ended up at. She turned her thoughts back to their previous conversation as she ran. While she had originally decided that she would cut her hair she had since decided to keep it long instead.

As she was now, it was unlikely that many people could even use it against her as she had pointed out to Itachi. Aside from that, long thick hair like hers was great for concealing weapons. She would have to practice weaving in poisoned spikes and senbon so if anyone did grab her hair they wouldn’t be long for the world anyway. Of course she would have to learn to make poisons first as she wasn’t going to trust anything made by someone else.

Doing that would be asking for someone to stab her in the back, possibly quite literally. Deciding to put that thought aside for another day, she gave herself a once over one more time to make sure she wasn’t forgetting anything. With the use of the hair dye and the half mask she was nearly unrecognizable now so being recognized shouldn’t be a problem anymore aside from her scent and chakra signature. The only thing that was still distinctive about her was her vividly green eyes but that wouldn’t be a problem as she otherwise looked nothing like herself now.

Given, Itachi and Kisame knew what her face looked like but the purpose of her disguise was not to fool them. It was to fool Konoha. As long as Itachi didn’t get any confirmation of his vague suspicions and spill the beans she was okay. Even if he did, she doubted the Akatsuki would be willing to give her up without a fight once her abilities were known to them.

She knew Itachi was still loyal to Konoha and his little brother above all else but she also knew that he knew the various reasons a person might want or need to leave their village behind. She was banking on that to keep him from outing her if he ever found any proof of who she was. The last thing she needed was the Hidden Leaf on her tail while she was trying to help Obito. She would literally fight them if it meant she could stay with him.

Ultimately she was going to turn on the Akatsuki but for now they would be useful for keeping her near to Obito even if she didn’t get to meet him right away. She kept her goals in mind as she ran alongside the two missing nin. Everything she might have to do from then on was in the name of her goals and she would do nearly anything to achieve them. Given, she would never kill her boys even if she was forced to fight them but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t fight if she had to.

She might not be recognized by looks as she was going to maintain her disguise but if she came across Kakashi on the battlefield he would recognize her scent and likely her chakra. Unlike Obito, she didn’t have body modifications that would change those intrinsic attributes. She would have to be careful and she would likely have to use scent erasing soap every time she bathed. She thought about looking into a jutsu or seal to eliminate both her chakra signature and scent completely but until she could find one she was stuck using soap to eliminate at least her scent.

She wondered if she could ask either of her companions about it without being too obvious but figured that either way it was a risk she was willing to take.

“Hey, do either of you know of a jutsu or seal that can be used to erase one’s scent, disguise a chakra signature or do both simultaneously?” she asked, eyeing them from the side.

“Why do you need it?” Itachi asked curiously.

“Trackers.” She said shortly, not willing to elaborate. She didn’t want to give out any more information than was necessary.

“Most of those in our organization don’t bother with such things as we’re all pretty distinctive by our looks alone. Using jutsu or seals to do that wouldn’t really help us much in the long run. If Orochimaru was still with us you could have asked him as he likely would have had something that could do that but I can’t think of anyone that’s in the organization now that uses anything like that.” Kisame said with a shrug. She cursed internally but let it go for now. It was a long shot anyway.

“Oh well, thanks anyway.” She said with a sigh. She would need to start researching such things if she had any free time to do so. Concealing one’s chakra and using scent erasing soap could only do so much if you were on the road for weeks at a time as everyone in the Akatsuki seemed to be, at least from the outside. Her senses still weren’t at their best as she still hadn’t given herself much time to rest so it really wasn’t much of a surprise when a wind jutsu narrowly missed her, knocking her out of her thoughts and causing her to automatically retaliate with a Water Dragon Jutsu.

The attacking nin was apparently so surprised at the power out of such a young looking girl that he didn’t have time to dodge and she used it to pin him against a rock face. Trusting that Kisame and Itachi would take care of any other opponents for now she swiftly made her way toward the still pinned man, keeping the jutsu up to keep him pinned like a bug. Once she got to him she released the jutsu in time to grab him by the throat and slam him back into the rock face. At this point she barely needed to use chakra to augment her strength and she was distantly proud of that as she watched her opponent nearly piss himself in fear.

“Hi, I’m the one you just royally pissed off. I would suggest not raising my ire further unless you’d like your trachea crushed. Now, what the _fuck_ do you think you’re doing attacking two notorious missing nin and myself?” she asked, her voice pleasant in contrast to her tight grip around his throat. It was tight enough to restrain but not tight enough to cut off his air and thus his ability to speak.

“I was ordered to take anyone with that cloak and anyone with them out. I was just trying to follow orders!” he said franticly. She didn’t recognize him in the least. Maybe it was because he hadn’t survived today in her original timeline or maybe it was because he was just so plain that she didn’t remember him from the war.

At this point, she didn’t honestly care. He had the gall to attack _her_ and she did not take threats to her life lightly. She couldn’t afford to, unlike Naruto who wanted to make friends with literally everyone that crossed his path. He was a forgiving person while she had learned not to be.

“Oh, isn’t that unfortunate. You see, you attacked the wrong person if you wanted to survive this day.” She said, dragging him by the throat toward Kisame and Itachi while he fought, struggled and generally didn’t even cause enough of a nuisance to really bother her. “Hey, this asshole is still alive. You want any information out of him before he dies?” she asked both missing nin.

Itachi turned his eyes toward the man and three seconds later he started abruptly screaming out all the village secrets he knew, much to the annoyance of Sakura.

“Did you already get what you wanted or should I let him keep screaming?” she yelled over the noise. He made a slashing movement over his throat with a finger and she took that as permission and crushed the man’s throat easily, letting out a sigh of relief as the screaming stopped. She then dropped him like the corpse he’d soon be and idly watched him gargle his last attempted breaths as he choked on his own blood. He looked up at her pleadingly and she just shrugged.

“I _did_ tell you that you attacked the wrong person. Your first mistake was attacking me and your second was not killing me with the first shot. Unfortunately for you, it is also your last mistake. Enjoy choking to death on your own blood knowing that I _could_ heal you but I won’t because you _pissed me off_.” She said cheerfully.

Neither of her companions looked remotely disturbed by her seemingly chipper attitude but the nin on the ground did as much as he could while dying of asphyxiation via a crushed trachea. Once he was finally dead she looked back at her companions.

“So, are we going to keep going or what? I’d like to at least get closer to whatever base you’re taking me to before I reach my next birthday.” She said, raising an eyebrow. Kisame chuckled.

“You really are something else, Hime. You don’t even flinch at causing such a violent death.” He said, his voice filled with something close to fondness.

“Why should I? We are shinobi. We live and breathe death on a daily basis and he is nothing more than another number added to the tally.” She said with a shrug. It looked as if this bothered Itachi a little but he didn’t speak again until another few hours had passed.

“How old are you?” he asked her abruptly after nearly an hour of silence, the last comments being small talk between herself and Kisame.

“Why do you want to know?” she asked, nonplussed by his sudden want to know her age.

“Just curiosity I suppose.” He answered with a shrug. Shrugging herself, he decided that it wouldn’t hurt to answer his query.

“I’m thirteen.” She answered shortly. There wasn’t much more to say to that. After a momentary silence he posed another question.

“How is it so easy for you to kill at your age?” he asked, bringing her up short with his question. She took a moment think over her answer for this.

“Simply put, if I didn’t kill I wouldn’t accomplish my goals. The lives of my enemies are nothing compared to the things I want to achieve.” She said with a shrug.

“What do you kill for?” Kisame asked, surprising her by entering the conversation. “What are your goals?” He continued.

“Why I kill… I suppose my ultimate goal is peace, as counterproductive as my methods sound to that. Aside from that, I have something I want to protect and I won’t rest until it is safe from harm.” She said.

“Is there anyone you would refuse to kill?” Kisame asked curiously.

“There are several people and no I won’t name them. I suppose you’ll find out if I ever come up against them in battle.” She said, ending the possibility right there of them asking who they were. Just because they were soon to be working for the same organization didn’t mean she was going to give them all of her secrets. There wasn’t a person in the world at current that she trusted to hold her secrets or have her back no matter what.

As much as it pained her, she couldn’t trust Obito right now. He was too wrapped up in his plan and his lack of sanity to put any such trust in him. She needed to figure out how to restore at least a measure of sanity and morality in him before she would ever trust him. That being said, she would kill for him in an instant and she would take a killing blow for him even if she would prefer not to die before his sanity and at least some of his morality was restored.

She shook away her thoughts and continued to run alongside her companions, falling into silence once more as the conversation and questions stopped. She _needed_ to stop losing herself in thought or it was going to get her killed one day. She only trusted these two as far as getting her to the base safely and even then she wasn’t sure. In fact, she _was_ sure that if she were about to take a mortal blow due to her own inattentiveness that they would leave her to her fate, probably not caring as she would have proven to be too much of a liability.

She needed to save the deep thinking for when she had time for it and keep her mind on the present. From that point on during the run to the base she kept herself from dwelling on things for too long, as she tended to do quite a bit. Before long she found that they had been running for days on end, only stopping at night to sleep. During those times they _always_ had someone keeping watch whether it was her, Kisame or Itachi.

She was honestly surprised they trusted her enough to keep watch. Then again, it was likely because they knew how much stronger they were than she was at the moment and knew they could catch her out if she tried anything untoward. It was likely the latter as missing nin weren’t likely to trust one another easily even when working for the same organization. Either way it still allowed for her to get more rest than she had on her flight from Wave and through Fire.

After her third time on watch they ran for only another day or so before she noticed that they were slowing down significantly. She didn’t have to be told that they were likely approaching the base they were taking her to. When they finally stopped in front of what was likely a secret entrance considering it just looked like a large boulder she took a deep, steadying breath. Whatever they would find in this base, she would have to be ready for it.

\---------

Just a few days earlier the remaining members of Team 7 had finally reached Konoha. They were all still exhausted from the events in Wave and the week of nearly continuous if slow travel didn’t help that much. Kakashi still hadn’t told the boys the truth about what had happened to Sakura but he should probably inform them before they heard it from someone else. He knew they would hear about it as word always spread fast in shinobi villages even if most people weren’t meant to know the information.

He would also need to inform her parents of her death. He wasn’t looking forward to that any more than he was looking forward to informing his team. He sighed and led his tired team up to the Hokage’s office to give his report. They were seen nearly immediately and he gave the details of what had happened during the mission, leaving out the incident with Sakura as the Hokage already knew of it by now.

“Do they know?” the Third asked once Kakashi had been allowed to dismiss his team to wait for him in the hall outside the office. Kakashi shook his head.

“No. I didn’t want to tell them on the day I discovered her as they had seen enough death that day. I didn’t want them to see her like that.” Kakashi said, forcibly keeping his voice neutral. The Hokage closed his eyes and sighed heavily.

“You need to tell them. Her funeral is in a few days and word of mouth will reach them before that. Her parents have already been informed.” The Third told him. Well, at least he wouldn’t have to bite _that_ kunai.

“I will.” Kakashi said with a sigh. He would bring them to a training ground so they could vent if they needed to.

“Good. Dismissed!” The Hokage said. Kakashi left immediately, wordlessly motioning the boys to follow him. When they got to the training ground he had picked he sat them down, standing in front of the memorial stone silently for a few moments as he decided on what to say.

“Sensei, what’s going on? Where’s Sakura-chan?” Naruto asked, looking around as if he expected her to show up at any minute. Sasuke stayed silent but his eyes said he wanted the answer to that as well. Kakashi sighed again more heavily this time as he prepared himself for what he was about to say.

“If you don’t hear it from me, you’re going to hear it from someone else anyway. Sakura is… not coming back.” He said, trying to start out delicately.

“What?! What do you mean she’s not coming back, sensei?” Naruto asked, confused and a little angry. Kakashi saw Sasuke glance at the memorial stone before looking back to him, a look of understanding dawning in his eyes.

“What happened?” Sasuke demanded angrily, surprising Kakashi with how much emotion he had in his voice. It seemed like Sasuke had already caught on to what he was trying to say.

“There was an incident in Wave I wasn’t aware of until I went to look for her. Sakura was… killed by an unknown assailant and left where she was. I’m… I’m sorry.” Kakashi said quietly. Naruto looked as if he couldn’t believe what Kakashi was saying while Sasuke’s eyes hardened.

“What? What are you talking about sensei? I thought you said she was being escorted back to the village.” Naruto said sounding a little lost.

“He was lying.” Sasuke said with venom in his voice, making Naruto recoil. “He should have gone to look for her when you came back and she didn’t.” Sasuke continued accusingly. Kakashi knew he could have tried to use the excuse that the battle started before Naruto came back but they both knew he had ample time before that to search for her. He had been concerned when she hadn’t shown up that morning but he had put it off, assuming she would show up later.

“I should have.” Kakashi confirmed, knowing that it was his fault this had happened. Sasuke glared at him before getting up and storming off. Naruto just sat there looking stunned as tears built up in his eyes and streaked down his cheeks silently. Kakashi wanted to comfort him but he didn’t know what he could say to help.

“I’m sorry.” Kakashi said again quietly, hating himself all the more for how careless he had been. He left soon after, Naruto still silently crying behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The idea of Sakura hiding poisoned weapons in her hair was one I got from aobears. I got permission to use it and obviously it’s going to come up later as Sakura has changed her mind about cutting her hair. Yes, I know some people might call bullshit on Sakura being able to heal herself so quickly without using her Yin seal but as I stated in a previous chapter, she has innate healing chakra. She was also stated in canon to have far surpassed Tsunade so I think I have more than a little leeway here.
> 
> She hasn’t lost any of her skills including her healing skills and she would have developed something like this after countless battles with Kaguya due to the need to stay alive. I decided to put the rest of Team 7’s reaction at the end of this chapter because I wanted to write it and they would just be getting back to Konoha probably about three or so days before the end of the Sakura portion. As I recall, it took them about a week to get there at a civilian pace and everyone on Team 7 would still be relatively exhausted after the battle in wave so I’d say they would reach Konoha around maybe three days before Sakura reached the base. All in all, it took Sakura about 10 days to reach the base. Sorry if I didn’t word that clearly enough


	5. Welcome to the Akatsuki

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura joins the Akatsuki and has her first conversation with the Obito of this timeline.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has somewhat of a time skip like I suppose the first chapter did because I gloss over her months of training and the various assignments she’s been given. I give some detail but I don’t want to write out training in excruciating detail and I doubt anyone wants to read that either. This chapter is I suppose what you would call filler because while there are some story moments in it, it’s mostly just Sakura spending time getting stronger as she needs to.
> 
> That being said, I will be going on a momentary hiatus posting wise while I take some time to write more chapters. I promise it won’t be too long but I need time to figure out the flow of the story and where I want it to go from here. I have a bit written out after this chapter but I’m ambivalent on the matter of some of it being the next chapter or not considering the timing of certain events.

She followed the two men silently as they opened the way to the base and stepped down the stairs that were revealed under the illusion that hid them. They walked in silence for what had to be nearly an hour before they finally came upon a series of doors. Itachi split from them there and went toward the door at the end of the hall while Kisame stopped at one to the side. She was going to follow him through it but Kisame held a hand up, stopping her short.

“Sorry little Hime. Leader-sama doesn’t like surprises so you’ll have to wait out here until I come for you. I have to make sure we’re on the same page before I bring you to meet him or there might be an unfortunate accident involving yourself.” Kisame said with a small, sadistic grin. She sighed quietly but nodded her assent, resigned to waiting where she was until she was retrieved.

Once he left through the door she leaned against the wall to the side of it, crossing her arms over her mostly flat chest and closing her eyes as she replayed the events that lead her here in her mind. She didn’t regret any of the actions she had taken thus far even if she still didn’t have a solid plan in mind for helping Obito. This was just one step closer to him and one step closer to a world of peace, even if she didn’t know how to achieve that yet. She was startled into opening her eyes by the closing of a door in the dark hallway.

She first looked to see if Kisame had come to fetch her before ascertaining that the door he had gone through was still closed with no sign of the man. Since it wasn’t him that meant someone was in the hallway with her. It took her a moment to spot them in the long shadows and poor lighting of the hallway but she eventually picked out a bright spot of orange in the area. Her heart sped up just a bit as she recognized the orange mask Obito had donned for years in his role as Tobi.

“Hello, tiny-chan. Who are you? How did you get in here?” he asked in his high pitched false voice. Her eye nearly twitched. She had forgotten how annoying that affected voice was.

“I’m a possible new recruit. I’m waiting for my sponsor to fetch me so that I might meet the leader of this organization.” She said calmly, seemingly unaffected by his cheer. To be fair, she actually was unaffected by at least that as she knew the emotion was false. Obito’s head tilted to the side in nearly cartoonish curiosity.

“How old are you, tiny-chan? You look a little young to join an organization like this.” He said, holding the chin under his mask and tapping the mask with a finger as if thinking. She nearly snorted at that as she knew that he had been the one to lead Itachi to joining the Akatsuki at the same age she was now. Instead, she merely shrugged uncaringly.

“My age is unimportant. My skills are the only thing that matter in this case. Joining this organization meets up with my own goals nicely.” She said, trying to be unaffected by being this close to the man she loved for the first time since she had arrived in the past. It was hard because she just wanted to take that stupid mask off him and kiss him soundly.

“Oh, what goals do you have, tiny-chan?” he asked, sounding less cheerful and more serious. She shrugged.

“I want peace. I’m tired of the constant fighting and the villages won’t fix the problems causing it themselves so someone has to step up to do it.” She explained, knowing better than to explain her other goal to him.

“That’s a good goal, tiny-chan. Tobi wants peace too! That’s why Tobi joined the Akatsuki!” Obito said, nodding as if agreeing with himself. She couldn’t stop the small but fond smile from spreading across her lips if she tried.

It was only by virtue of the half mask that Obito didn’t see it. She couldn’t stop herself from revealing more even if she knew she shouldn’t.

“That isn’t my only goal though.” She said quietly, seeing Obito perk up in interest.

“What is tiny-chan’s other goal then?” he asked curiously, moving closer to her.

“I want…” here, she hesitated, wondering if it was a good idea to tell him this but ultimately deciding that telling him in vague terms couldn’t hurt. “I want to help the person I love most.” She revealed quietly.

“Oh, is the person tiny-chan loves in trouble?” he asked curiously. Her heart wrenched in her chest.

“He…” Her voice hitched and she blinked away the tears that formed in the corners of her eyes. “He was killed.” She said quietly, bringing him up short. “All he wanted was peace and in the end he died for it.” She said, unable to stop the wavering of her voice as she spoke. Everything was quiet for a few moments as she gathered herself. Before he could say anything she spoke again.

“Sometimes, I _hate_ this world.” She confessed quietly. She had never told her Obito her feelings about this but it felt right to tell some version of him the truth. “Sometimes I would rather see it all burn for what it did to him.” She continued, hatred rearing its ugly head in her heart. She clenched her fists tightly in anger before breathing out to try to calm herself.

“I can’t do that though. For him I will bring about the world he wanted to see even if I don’t care about it in the least. He deserves that much from me. I couldn’t do anything to save him so instead I will bring about change in his name.” She said firmly, her conviction to do such buried in her so deeply that it rested in her very bones.

“After I’ve done that, I’ll find a way to bring him back so he can see his dreams realized for himself. I won’t rest until I can do that.” She finished, finally falling into silence. The silence lingered until Obito spoke up nearly a minute later, his tone a somber one that she had never heard from this persona before.

“Tobi can sympathize. Sometimes Tobi does not like this world very much either.” Obito said quietly, a large contrast to the false cheer he had affected earlier. Before anything more could be said the door beside her opened and Kisame stepped out, beckoning to her.

“Come on, Hime. Leader-sama has agreed to meet with you. It’s best not to keep him waiting.” Kisame said before turning and going back through the door, only giving Obito a fleeting glance and no acknowledgement. If she didn’t know any better she would have deemed it dismissive but she knew that Kisame at least knew who the real puppet master of the Akatsuki was as opposed to most in the organization.

She followed him through the door and closed it behind her, following him down a short hall to a wider room that looked like a furnished cave more than anything. There was a desk with a chair behind it and Pein of course sat behind said desk with the woman, Konan if she remembered correctly, standing to the right of him. He wordlessly gestured for her to stand before him in front of the desk so she did so, watching from the corner of her eye as Kisame left the room again once she was in place. It was silent for a moment before Pein spoke.

“Kisame tells me you have some rather interesting abilities at your disposal despite your young age. He witnessed you turn a man’s body to paste after a single punch and heal yourself from what to anyone else would be a fatal wound. From what I’ve gathered, you can likely heal others just as easily as yourself as well. Your abilities bear a striking resemblance to those of Senju Tsunade of the Sanin and yet you can heal yourself without a visible seal to store chakra in to do so like she is said to have to do.

“If this is true, you have surpassed even the Slug Princess. That is indeed an impressive feat. It makes one wonder which village produced you and why you decided to leave that village. Either way that is not what is important here.

“What I want to know is what your ultimate goal is. What do you plan to do that you couldn’t achieve from the safety of your village?” Pein asked, his hands clasped together in front of him patiently as if he had all day to wait for her answer.

“My ultimate goal is to attain peace for this world. I cannot do this while tied to a ninja village as there is little point in trying to make peace when one has been ordered to fight the people of other villages. Long term peace cannot be won without casualties and I understand that but it also cannot be won if the larger villages continue to fight and undermine one another. I must be a neutral party of a sort if I am to achieve my goal.” She said, wondering what he would say to that.

“It seems that your goal coincides with our own. Are you willing to do whatever is necessary in order to achieve your goal?” he asked.

“There are a few people I will refuse outright to kill but other than that I will do what is necessary to achieve peace.” She said confidently.

“Oh? Do you still have some attachment to your village?” he asked. She shook her head.

“A village is nothing but a series of buildings placed together for convenience so no. A hidden village is in itself a flawed ideal. I do however still have attachments to some of the people of said village and outside of it. I am not trying to achieve peace for myself but for those I hold dear. Will this be a problem?” she asked plainly, not caring in the least if he said it was.

“So long as your refusal to harm certain individuals does not interfere with the overall goal of this organization, there will be no problem. That being the case, we would like you to join us in our efforts to bring peace to the world. Is this acceptable to you?” he asked. She nodded firmly.

“It is.” She said shortly. Pein looked satisfied by her answer.

“Good. You will be assigned a partner and you will take missions with said partner. For now we are merely accruing funds with which to aid in our efforts. The missions range from low class bounty hunting to high risk assassinations depending on who can afford our services.

“From what I understand you are not yet at the same level as most of our members so you will be given time to get your skills up to par before you are sent out on higher risk missions. You will be assigned a room next to your partner’s in this base so he can retrieve you for missions. Your duties aside from missions and attaining additional strength include healing any members who need healing. You will be given a room to turn into an infirmary if you need it. I trust you find this acceptable?” Pein said in a neutral tone.

“I do. What is my partner’s name and where are my assigned quarters?” she asked. She would rather not have to search the base to find what she needed.

“Your partner’s name is Tobi and he should be somewhere around the base. It will be up to you to find him. He will show you where his quarters are so you can find your own in short order.” Pein said with an air of dismissal.

“If that is all, I will go find my partner. I thank you for letting me join your organization.” Sakura said, bowing low to him.

“Do as you will.” He said dismissively. She stood from her bow and headed for the door. Just before she opened it, she heard him speak from behind her. “Welcome to the Akatsuki.”

She smiled as she opened the door and left the small hall behind her, closing it and looking around the larger hall filled with doors. She had gotten in successfully and that at least was something to be happy about. She decided to knock on the door she saw Obito come from earlier, hoping that it was his quarters but knowing that may not be the case. It was proven that it was not when another member of the Akatsuki opened the door. She was greeted by the sight of white hair and purple eyes.

“Who the hell are you?” Hidan asked, looking her up and down and looking unimpressed.

“I’m a new member. I’m looking for my partner.” She answered coolly.

“Well you’re knocking on the kitchen door and there’s no one in here but me. I don’t know who they assigned you to but as far as I know everyone has a partner. That being the case, go fuck off and find whoever they assigned. I don’t want to be bothered right now.” Hidan said before slamming the door in her face.

She huffed but decided to explore the base rather than getting into a fight with a near immortal her first time here. She curiously opened the rest of the doors in the hall and they were all different types of rooms. Aside from the kitchen there was a room that stored specialized weapons, a room clearly made for entertainment with a television and everything, a room that was clearly a laboratory, a room filled with puppets and a larger room than the rest that was clearly meant for training. The rest seemed to be empty and if she had to guess she would say they were currently not in use given the dust gathering in them.

She moved on to the door at the end of the hall and found that it led deeper into the base. She wandered through a winding series of hallways, hoping that she would bump into Obito so she wouldn’t have to knock on every door she came across. It didn’t look like most of the members were there at the current time so at least she wouldn’t have to deal with meeting most of them right now. Dealing with a succession of increasingly violent maniacs was not her idea of a good day.

“Hey! Tiny-hime-chan!” A familiar voice called out after she’d been wandering the halls for more than an hour. She was more than a little relieved to hear it despite the deliberately annoying voice he affected. She turned to find Obito waving to her energetically and she made her way over to him.

“So, did you get in?” he asked and she nodded. He cheered and she couldn’t help but smile even if he couldn’t see if behind her mask.

“They also assigned you as my partner. I’m to have a set of quarters next to yours. Could you show me to yours so I can find mine?” she asked. He stopped for a moment.

“Tobi gets a partner? Awesome!” he cheered and she couldn’t stop the small chuckle she let out. “Come on! Tobi will show you the way!” Obito said, grabbing her hand and leading her quickly through the winding hallways to his door. They arrived at his door in short order and he gestured around the hall.

“All the rooms aside from the one we’re standing by are empty. Tobi thinks you could probably pick any one.” Obito said with the usual false cheer this persona affected. She nodded her thanks and chose the door to the right of his, opening it and seeing that the room was bare. There wasn’t even furniture in it.

She sighed, knowing she’d have to go find a small village to buy at the least a bed for now. She turned back to Obito to see him observing her.

“Thanks for the help.” She said before deciding to see if he knew where the closest village was. “Do you know where the closest village is to here? I need to buy at least a bed for tonight.” She said, not particularly wanting to sleep on her bed roll on a cold, hard stone floor. Obito nodded enthusiastically.

“Yes! Let Tobi show you the way! Hidden Rain is right outside this base and Tobi knows the easiest way to get through the base to get there!” he said enthusiastically, surprising her. She wasn’t surprised by the false enthusiasm so much as the fact that they had taken her right to their main base.

She supposed it made some sense though. Pein wasn’t likely to stay in any other base than the main one. She just hadn’t thought about it due to the hidden entrance they used. It was almost an hour outside Hidden Rain so that was likely why she hadn’t sensed any of the people of the village.

“Alright, lead the way then Tobi.” She said pleasantly. She was glad to be able to spend more time with Obito even in his Tobi persona. True, she was assigned to be his partner and go on assignments with him but she wanted to spend as much time with him as possible. It took them around a half an hour to get to the exit Obito told her about.

Once they did she was somewhat surprised to see that it was just a regular looking door. True, they’d had to go up several flights of stairs to get here but somehow she thought the exit near Hidden Rain would be, well, hidden. Obito led her out the door and she was indeed led right into Hidden Rain. It seemed from her vantage point that the ridiculously tall hideout was right in the center of the village.

Obito led her to the nearest civilian furnisher and she quickly bought a bed for herself, lifting the bed frame and the mattress with no real effort. She didn’t even have to use chakra for it. Her strength amazed the civilian shop keep and Obito at least acted amazed. She was sure he was likely plotting as soon as he saw her strength, probably planning out the best way to apply her strength in battle.

Luckily for him, that was mostly what she used it for anyway so she already knew how to use it most effectively in battle. She didn’t bother getting bedding as she was planning to lay out her bed roll on the mattress and call it good. From the impression she got she wasn’t likely to be at the base much to use the bed anyway. The Akatsuki nearly always seemed to be on assignment, at least from what she saw of them in her previous time line.

Once she got her bed she and Obito headed back to the base so she could put it in her new quarters. She made sure to pay more attention when she followed him back through the base, learning the way from the door that led into Rain back down to her underground quarters so she didn’t need a guide every time she wanted to go into the village or even just outside the base. Once she had set up her bed in her quarters she waved to Obito before excusing herself to go back outside so she could start on her training. She had been too busy fleeing Wave and then Fire to properly train herself in the past few weeks to do so.

She needed all the training time she could get to regain the amount of strength and endurance she had while on the run with Obito. She had nearly reached the strength she had at the end of the war during her full team’s last and only battle with Kaguya but she needed to be stronger than that. On top of that she still wasn’t as fast as she had been then either. The only thing that she had really improved upon since that time was her chakra stores as it had all come back with her.

She didn’t know how exactly that worked since she wasn’t nearly as physically strong as she was. Theoretically her Yang chakra should have been weakened by her less than peak physical state but it hadn’t been and she had no idea as to why that was. It made sense that her Yin chakra had traveled with her as it was made up of her life experiences and her inner strength as a person and thus she wouldn’t have lost any of it but the Yang chakra coming back as well was a mystery she would have to wait to solve if she ever did.

Once she had finally gotten outside she started up her training once more, eager to get back her former strength and speed. She had found a nice large, flat area about an hour outside of Hidden Rain that she hoped was far enough away from the village that she didn’t disturb the residents with her training. As she trained she realized that she would soon have to obtain a sparring partner stronger than her if she wanted to push herself any more than she was already doing. While training on her own was nice as it gave her some alone time to think, she wouldn’t be able to get much stronger before she hit a plateau in strength if she didn’t have someone to spar against.

She decided after she had tired herself out for the day that she would ask Obito to be her sparring partner tomorrow as he was likely already at least as strong as he had been during the war. She would have to risk revealing her abilities to him if she wanted to improve upon them. She wouldn’t get anywhere in training by holding back even if she would like to keep at least some of her skills in reserve for if she had to fight him. She would have to chance it and hope that she had improved enough to take him on if it came to that.

Seeing as his plans weren’t likely to change any time soon, it was quite likely to come to that and she had to be ready for it. She couldn’t afford to be taken down before she could affect change in the world by finding a way to bring about real, lasting peace and stopping Kaguya from ever being unsealed. These goals dogged her thoughts even as she finally got back down to her quarters, laid her bed roll out and laid down to sleep. She thought about ways to achieve her goals until she finally fell asleep.

As was usual since she had returned to the past her sleep was incredibly restless and filled with memories of her previous timeline. Luckily it wasn’t all nightmares this time so she still slept better than she usually did. She just hated waking up in the morning feeling like she was emotionally wrung out before the day had even started. Once she was up and about she decided to knock on Obito’s door and ask him about sparring with her.

“Hey, would you mind sparring with me today? I need someone to spar against if I want to get any stronger.” She said once he had opened the door. He was silent for a moment before he nodded.

“Sure, Tobi will spar with you. Did you have a place in mind?” Obito asked. Sakura wondered how he put up that façade so easily this early in the morning but knew better than to actually ask him that. No one was supposed to know that it was a façade after all.

“Yes. I found a place about an hour outside Hidden Rain that is easily big enough to spar and train in. Sorry for asking you so early but I need to get stronger.” Sakura said truthfully, knowing that it wouldn’t make a difference if he knew that or not. Obito tilted his head in curiosity.

“Tobi already thinks you’re pretty strong. You didn’t even have to use chakra to pick up that bed. How did tiny-hime-chan get that strong?” he asked curiously.

“That’s not really important here.” She said, brushing the question off. She wasn’t about to tell him that she was a time traveler yet. “Are you ready to go?” she asked. She could tell he was a little frustrated at her non answer but he didn’t show it or push the question.

“Tobi is ready. Let’s go!” he said with his usual false enthusiasm. She smiled under her mask and nodded, leading the way out of the base and to the field she had chosen for her training. They started out with light sparring, testing one another to see how far they could take it.

Slowly, the hits got heavier and the jutsu got higher level as Obito saw that she could both take it and dish it out. Soon she was pushing herself to her maximum strength and using powerful jutsu that tore up the landscape as she sparred with her new partner. She could tell that Obito was enjoying himself and at the same time keeping track of her current strength as they sparred. He would be able to use that information to see how far she could go in the assignments they would be given together.

She didn’t honestly mind at the moment as she knew he would need to know her current strength to see how far she had to go to get to S-Class. After she regained her strength though she would attempt at least to keep some things back. She had no idea if he had been informed about her healing abilities or not but since Kisame had seen them she would have to assume he was. Kisame might seem like a jovial man on this side of the battlefield but he was here for his ideals, not his health.

She knew that ultimately he would report anything that he found interesting to Obito so she had to assume that all her current abilities she had shown aside from her strength were known to him before yesterday. She of course hadn’t shown her true strength without chakra until she had gone into Hidden Rain with Obito. He verbally pushed her to use the strength she had in the spar without augmenting it with chakra to see how far they could push that. Her strength training would likely have to be augmented with weights to help push it further.

She could get plain weights nearly anywhere but what she needed were weights like the ones specialized by Maito Gai or someone like him; someone insane enough to believe that the body could handle inhuman amounts of stress while still being able to train. She was frustrated by the lack of progress in training her strength without using chakra so she needed a way to get those weights without revealing herself to the village. When she brought her problem up to Obito at the end of the first day’s training he told her he would take care of it. Normally she wouldn’t even contemplate trusting him with anything but she knew he needed her to be stronger as well if they wanted to take on better assignments eventually.

By the time she woke up the next day the weights were in her room and insanely heavy to boot. Thankfully they weren’t the Sage awful orange ones Gai and Lee actually wore so she was able to put them on without feeling like she was going to be a walking target while wearing them. They were hard to move in once she put them on and it made her smirk. They were _exactly_ what she needed to take her training up a notch.

For the next few weeks of training she got her ass handed to her every day by Obito who was still keeping himself down to her max speed and strength for her sake. She slowly worked her way up again until she was at the point where she could hold her own with the limits he had set for himself even with the weights on. Unfortunately, that took a few straight months of training to do. They had of course started assignments nearly right away so her training always took a back seat to those.

In consequence, she didn’t get as strong as she wanted to as fast as she could have. Still, she eventually reached that limit and Obito went higher, pushing her beyond her limits while she still wore the weights. Thankfully, these weights unlike Gai’s had seals incorporated into them as well. When she got used to the weight she could use the seals to increase it to whatever weight she wanted which meant she was getting used to heavier and heavier weights as her training went on.

Before she had realized it half a year had passed since she had escaped from her team and consequently her village and she was finally able to match most of the Akatsuki. That didn’t stop her from taking her training to greater heights though. When she had time to train in between missions she took her training to insane, unheard of levels outside of Maito Gai himself. While it always made her go to bed in extreme levels of pain even with her innate healing chakra, she was also making unheard of levels of progress.

She went on a lot of assignments with Obito that weren’t really worth much of her attention most of the time and even when they were she kept her training weights on. At this point they had well since learned how to work together and how to use the skills of their partner to their advantage. She was the heavy hitter and healer while he was the slippery bastard that was good for both distracting and angering their various opponents. Despite the fact that this wasn’t her Obito they worked well together.

A few times she almost allowed herself to fall into a familiar routine with him, both in fighting and in daily life. She stopped herself every time she found it happening, reminding herself that he wasn’t her Obito and that she couldn’t truly trust him. She could trust him enough to have her back while they were partners but anything past that was out of the question. Despite his nearly constant coaxing she had yet to share any more of her past with him.

She knew that he must be frustrated with his lack of real information on her but he would just have to deal with that. She knew damn well that she had secrets that could be used against her to great effect and she also knew that Obito would have no qualms about using said secrets against her. Despite her wariness of him she found herself reluctantly comfortable in his company despite the annoying persona he wore most of the time. Aside from that, he was a damn good training partner.

He was stronger than all of the individual missing nin in the Akatsuki including Pein and he constantly pushed her past her limits in training. She still had yet to meet any of her smaller goals, admittedly but she could work on that. She still had to find someone to teach her about poisons that wouldn’t immediately stab her in the back. She also had to find someone who knew enough about seals to compose scent and charka shrouding seals.

She knew enough from Naruto to be able to read seals and discern what they did but he hadn’t been alive long enough to teach her how to design her own. She could copy down already drafted designs and even tell if they would work but she didn’t know enough to make anything original. She could hardly track down Jiraiya to learn from him and even if she could she would never be able to trust him. She couldn’t risk interacting with anyone from Leaf that still had ties to the village.

She wasn’t exactly happy that she couldn’t see her friends and allies but she had chosen this path for herself. Her happiness was not a factor when it came to saving the world. All in all, despite having no way of meeting her smaller goals yet, she was getting stronger. That would just have to be enough for her for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Sakura is a little hateful of the world. Everything has been taken from her and she’s more than a little bitter about that. Despite her own feelings on the matter she is still willing to press onward for the sake of Obito and all those she cares about. I know she met Obito pretty early on in the story but it’s not going to be all rainbows and butterflies, I assure you. Things might go a little smoothly for a while but Sakura is in for a rough ride.
> 
> I know “Tobi” isn’t canonically in the Akatsuki yet because of the lack of Rings tied to the statue but he still hangs around the bases, just not in plain sight of the others there. He likes to keep up with the current events of his puppets and the easiest way to do that is for him to stay in the main base. The only ones who really know he is around are Pein, Konan, Kisame and Itachi. She was partnered with “Tobi” simply because he didn’t have a partner and they trust him enough to at least not kill their only healer.


End file.
